monopoly.cdbpdx.comHOW OLD IS MY MONOPOLY GAME? EARLY MONOPOLY GAME BOX DESIGNS

CLICK HERE EARLY MONOPOLY GAME BOX DESIGNS 1935 - 1954 CLICK ON A GAME BOX In 1935, Parker Brothers (PB) bought the rights to Monopoly from the ’inventor’, Charles Darrow. This included Darrow’s inventory of game parts. PB immediately began selling Monopoly games using the Darrow game parts. The first games Parker Brothers made were marked TRADE MARK. About 24,000 - 25,000 of these were maunfactured. This included a small number of the No 9 long box, very rare today. Parker Brothers applied for their own patent and the next group of their games stated PATENT PENDING or PATENT APPLIED FOR. Over 100,000 games were produced with this label. This statement was used for a while in 1935, but they discovered that there were other games very much like Monopoly already with patents. To protect their investment in Darrow’s Monoply game, they decided to purchase the 1924 patent to the Landlords game and added that patent to their Monopoly games. This is patent 1,509,312. In the meantime, PB applied for their own patent on Monopoly. Their patent was issued on Dec 31, 1935, patent number 2,026,082. The new patent was added to the labels and games produced from 1936 - 1941 included both patents printed on the labels. When the 1924 patent expired in 1941, they dropped that number from the labels and used only the later patent issued to them. The phrase A PARKER TRADING GAME was added to the box tops in 1937. Parker Brothers had an office in London and included this city on the labels of their Monopoly games. That office closed in 1940 and London was replaced by Chicago. Dating early Monopoly games is done by the patent numbers and cities listed on the labels. Most early games can be dated within a few years using these label elements. Canadian Monopoly games were introduced in 1936 and closely resembled the U.S. games with the different varieties. The earliest known Canadian game is the No 9 White Box with legals stating CANADIAN (Trademark) REGISTRATION APPLIED FOR and CANADIAN PATENT APPLIED FOR, described below. These seem to be extremely rare. The game boxes pictured below show different label designs and kind of a chronology of manufacture. I’m always adding new box varieties so check back once in a while for updates. Please feel free to email me with corrections, questions, or comments. Also, check out the online Vintage Monopoly Game Collectors group here . Lots of good stuff there about early Monopoly games. ~~ Black and Blue Number 7 and Number 5 Boxes ~~ This style box was a Darrow design and Parker Brothers just continued production using his design. Once Parker Brothers figured out Monopoly was taking off, they decided to offer a variety of different game options. One of the first things changed was the color of the box from black to blue. By the end of 1936, all the boxes with this label design were switched to the blue color. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE BLACK BOX Number 7 GAME 1935-1936 1935 TRADE MARK BLACK BOX The ’Trade Mark’ game is the ultimate Parker Brothers Monopoly game for a collector. It is the first to be wholly manufactured by Parker Brothers and is very similar to the Darrow version, except for the addition of player pieces and a redesign of Darrow’s black box. It was produced in limited numbers for only a few months in mid-1935. Estimates are that about 24,000 games might have been produced. The ’Trade Mark’ version was also produced in the long box No 9 version. Sorry, no pictures of that one available (yet). 1935 PATENT PENDING BLACK BOX The ’Patent Pending’ game was Parker Brothers next version of Monopoly, made after the ’Trade Mark’ games. Parker Brothers applied for a patent and added this to the games. By this time, Parker Brothers realised the game was going to be a hit so production was ramped up considerably. It is estimated that over 100,000 ’Patent Pending’ games could have been made. No Number 9 White Box games are known with the PATENT PENDING statement on the box. 1935 EARLY SINGLE PATENT BLACK BOX This is the next version. After purchasing rights for Monopoly from Charles Darrow, research discovered another game very similar to Monopoly had been patented in 1924 by Elizabeth Magie. Parker Brothers quickly purchased that patent from Magie and put it on their Monopoly games just to cover their claim to the rights to the game. That patent number 1,509,312 replaced the Patent Pending labels. This group includes a very few No. 9 white box games where games already printed ’Trade Mark’ had this patent added as an overprint. As far as I know, less than a dozen of these game boxes exist today. (VIEW HERE) 1936 DUAL PATENT BLACK BOX On Dec 31, 1935, Parker Brothers was issued a patent for Monopoly, patent 2,026,082. Almost immediately, very early in 1936, this new patent was added to the Magie patent on all Monopoly games, replacing the single Magie patent. These patents also appeared on the several new varieties introduced by Parker Brothers throughout 1936. These patents remained on all Monopoly games until 1941 when the Magie patent expired and was removed. BLUE BOX Number 5 & 7 GAME 1936 - 1952 1936 DUAL PATENT COPYRIGHT 1935 1936 was a busy year for Parker Brothers and their Monopoly game. They produced 1.8 million copies of the game and introduced several different new versions of the game. The Number 7 game box was changed from black to blue. Also, Parker Brothers was issued their own patent for Monopoly on Dec 31, 1935 and they wanted the world to know about it, so they printed that on these game boxes. 1936 DUAL PATENT COPYRIGHT 1935 A PARKER TRADING GAME MADE IN USA Late in 1936, Parker Brothers realized that Monopoly was going to be their best seller and drafted a marketing plan to promote the game. Someone came up with the phrase ’A PARKER TRADING GAME’ and added that to game boxes late 1936. By early 1937, all Monopoly games included this wording. The words ’MADE IN USA’ were added at the bottom of the box. 1936 Number 5 DUAL PATENT REG GREAT BRITAIN & CANADA Number 5 (For 3 to 8 Players) Another promotional idea was to introduce the Number 5 game, pretty much the same as the Number 7 game, except there were 8 player pieces instead of 7 AND it cost 50c more. They printed these changes on the first Number 5 game boxes. Also, Parker Brothers sold licenses to sell Monopoly to a Canadian and a British company in 1936. They added that bit of information to the legals statement. 1936 Number 5 DUAL PATENT REG GREAT BRITAIN & CANADA Didn’t take long for Parker Brothers to realize raising the price of their game in the middle of the Great Depression was a bad idea, so the game went back to $2.00 and the promotional printing was removed, though Monopoly was still their best selling game. 1937-1939 DUAL PATENT LONDON By 1937, the bit about being reg in Great Britain and Canada had been removed and ’A PARKER TRADING GAME’ took a prominent position in the legals line and was printed in bold text. This is about the most common variety of 1930s Monopoly. 1940 DUAL PATENT CHICAGO In 1940, Parker Brothers closed their office in London and removed the city from the box. This was replaced by Chicago. This is a very hard to find variety, with Chicago AND the dual patent because the Magie patent (1,509,312) expired in 1941 and had to be removed, so this version was only printed in 1940. 1941-1946 LATE PATENT REG. In 1941, the Magie patent expired and was removed from the game boxes. 1946-1951 LATE PATENT REGISTERED In 1946, the text ’REG. U.S. PATENT OFFICE’ was expanded, thus: ’REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE’. 1951-1952 LATE PATENT "A PARKER TRADING GAME" removed "PARKER BROTHERS TRADE-MARK NAME FOR IT’S REAL ESTATE TRADING GAME" added In 1951, ’A PARKER TRADING GAME’ was replaced with ’PARKER BROTHERS TRADE-MARK NAME FOR IT’S REAL ESTATE TRADING GAME’. As far as I can tell, this was the last version of the Number 7 game. It was discontinued in 1952 and was wholly replaced by the Number 8 Popular Edition as the only small box game...