Queen Elizabeth's death: Shoppers scrambling for souvenirs depicting late monarch

Shoppers are scrambling for souvenirs depicting the late Queen Elizabeth, inscribed with the dates of her 70-year reign. 

But while a small range of memorial items have appeared in London stores, they're unofficial and there's one figure you probably won't find on them. 

From mugs to tea towels, tote bags, and T-shirts, it's not strange for the streets near Buckingham Palace to sell Queen Elizabeth merchandise - but it is odd for it to now be limited edition. 

"We couldn't even put it out on the display before people were taking it so we had all the boxes on the floor and people were just taking it out of the boxes," said Cool Britannia Store employee Jasmine Davey.

Davey said as soon as the news of the Queen's death was made public, their suppliers were contacting them with unofficial memorial items they had ready to go. 

"Some people from the store had to drive up to the warehouse in Liverpool and bring it back down for the next day."

And shoppers along Buckingham Palace Road are buying up large, especially the visiting tourists. 

"When else are you going to get this? I mean this is now, this is it, it'll never happen again," one person said.

"The dates are significant of course. And I brought this one also because of the different photographs," another added.

"We got some tea towels that just have the dates of the Queen because she's so revered here, and it's amazing to see these crowds and how much they all loved her," a third said.

But on the corner of the same street, heavy purple curtains are drawn in another store window.

The Buckingham Palace Shop, an official royal gift store, has suspended its sales of royal souvenirs for the entire mourning period both at the physical site and online.

Majestic Gifts, another of the open traders, said mugs are proving the most popular memorial item - but there's one figure you won't find on them just yet, King Charles.

"After a period of time, we will plan for that as well. Right now we are just focusing on the Queen, Her Majesty," said Majestic Gifts manager Nasir Abdul.

"At the moment he's not necessarily a popular figure to have on merchandise," Davey added.

Elizabeth is still Queen of the souvenir market.