Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth carried a folded 5 pounds or 10 pounds to donate to the church on Sundays. Reuters

Secret contents of the Queen's handbag have been revealed, after much speculation if she carried cash.

The Queen, along with her lippy and compact mirror, carried a folded 5 pounds or 10 pounds to donate to the church on Sundays, according to Sally Bedell Smith, the author of Elizabeth the Queen: The Woman Behind The Throne.

While speaking to the Lady magazine, the author also revealed that the handbag usually contains reading glasses, mint lozenges and a fountain pen.

She said that the queen has lipstick and the mirror, which she is said to apply even when sitting at the dinner table, the Daily Mail reported.

Writes Ms Smith: "At the end of a luncheon or a dinner, even a banquet set with silver gilt and antique porcelain, she has the somewhat outre habit of opening her bag, pulling out a compact and reapplying her lipstick."

The queen is also known to carry a portable hook to hang her bag discretely under tables.

"I watched the Queen open her handbag and remove a white suction cup and discreetly spit into it," Jean Willis, one of the Queen's cousins is quoted in the magazine as saying

"The Queen then attached the cup to the underside of the table. The cup had a hook on it, and she attached her handbag to it."

Earlier in 2007, a book "What's In The Queen's Handbag And Other Royal Secrets" by Phil Dampier claimed that the queen's handbag included a collection of good-luck charms given to her by her children, plus family photographs and a make-up case, given to her by the Duke of Edinburgh, but did not carry any cash.