Money

Monopoly money is probably what makes the game so much fun. Contolling thousands of dollars of the colorful bills is pure joy. Through the years the money has had several changes; from design to color to copyright changes. There were even metal coins in the early De Luxe editions.

Darrow used money from a dime store in his early games. By the time the white box games were produced he was having the money printed. These bills were fairly plain with the denomination printed only in the center. The colors on these bills is as follows:
$5 - Pink
$1 - White
$10 - Yellow
$20 - Green
$50 - Gray
$100 - Goldenrod
$500 - Salmon
These are known as Darrow type 1 bills. The Darrow black box has the same type money, but the denomination was added to each of the four corners as well. These are known as Darrow type 2

When Parker Brothers took over production in 1935 the same type of money was used. It's not known if the Darrow money from the sale was used, or if Parker Brothers produced their own from the start (like the Title Deeds). During the "Trade Mark" run the $100 and $500 bills switched colors to goldenrod for the $500s and salmon for the $100s. This was still Darrow type 2 money. These bills lasted into the "Patent Pending" run.

During the "Patent Pending" run the money was re-designed to the design we know today. This money has "MONOPOLY" above the center denomination and "COPYRIGHT 1935 BY PARKER BROTHERS, Inc." below it. The colors on the bills carried over from the previous design:
$1 - White
$5 - Pink
$10 - Yellow
$20 - Green
$50 - Gray
$100 - Salmon
$500 - Goldenrod

the next change occurred in 1938. The colors on the money changed to the familiar colors in use until August 2008:
$1 - White
$5 - Pink
$10 - Yellow
$20 - Green
$50 - Blue
$100 - Tan
$500 - Goldenrod

Many sets continued to use the old colors through the second World War. All of these bills continued to have the copyright information and the word "MONOPOLY" on them.

1952 saw the next big change. The colors remained the same, but the writing on the bills was removed. These bills remained in use for 32 years.

1985 was the 50th anniversary for Monopoly (Parker Brothers) and the money was changed to again have the copyright information on the bottom and "MONOPOLY®"on top. The biggest difference between these bills and those from the 1940s is the "®" after the word "MONOPOLY".

After Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers in 1991 the money was changed once again. The copyright information was removed from below the center denomination and moved to the lower right side of the bill in the border. I do not own any games from right after the takeover, but the 60th anniversary bills have "©1994 PARKER BROTHERS" and the 1995 Deluxe edition has "©1935, 1995 PARKER BROTHERS". In 1996 the information was changed to "©1935,1996, HASBRO, INC.". This was the money in through August 2008.

August 2008. Monopoly has been standardized throughout the world. What does that mean for the money in the US? Some of the colors have been changed again. The new colors are:
$1 - White
$5 - Pink
$10- Blue
$20 - Lime Green
$50 - Lavender
$100 - Peach
$500 - Goldenrod
Changes to the money itself include the new Monopoly logo across the top, new designs on the house and the train, and "©1935,2008 HASBRO".