IN the 19th century, mechanical toy banks, like songs and political cartoons, were barometers of popular culture.

I'd say that Dorfee still has the first that he swiped from his toy bank.

Rogers sees a collection of toy banks.

A vintage collection of cast-iron toy banks and antique farm implements line the rooms.

This was a toy bank from which a "Thing" hand emerged to snatch coins which were placed in a slot at the front.

One other gadget remained: a 40G iPod, another little electronic toy Banks had thought of buying.

Compared with the Impregnable Trust Company's vault room, that of the Titan Trust was a toy bank.

There are many rooms of dolls and other rooms of toy banks and mechanical toys that seem to have originated as diamond advertisements in the windows of jewelry stores.

In the upstairs gallery, it's 19th-century metal items on sparkling metal-laminated shelves: mirror and portrait photographs in Victorian metal frames in one piece, a combination of toy banks and food graters in the other.

Although Thinkaway was a small player in the industry, mainly producing toy banks in the form of film characters, it was able to scoop up the worldwide master license for Toy Story toys simply because no one else wanted it.

Michelle McDonald, a spokeswoman for Summit, said the company had already donated extra toy banks to its employees, but after discovering what a big seller it was, company officials asked employees to bring back any unopened boxes to fill customer orders.

In the Batlin case, one maker of "Uncle Sam" toy banks sued another for copying its coin-operated bank, which was based on toy banks sold in the United States since at least the 1880s.