Monopoly

MONOPOLY  TRIVIA:

In 1935 Monopoly was first published by Parker Brothers.

The Landlord's Game is the name of the game on which Charles Darrow, Monopoly's purported inventor, based his design.

Germantown, Pennsylvania was Charles Darrow's hometown.

Lizzie J. Magie designed and patented the game on which Monopoly was based.

40 squares are on a standard Monopoly board.

In an average game, the B&O Railroad is landed on most often.

In the U.S. version of Monopoly, the Atlantic City street name Marvin Gardens is misspelled.

In 1999, there was worldwide vote for a new player token. Of the 3 choices, the Money Bag beat out the Biplane and Piggy Bank as the new player token added to all new standard Monopoly sets.

Today, a new copy of the standard edition of Monopoly comes with:
      • the battleship
      • cannon
      • dog
      • horse and rider
      • iron
      • racecar
      • sack of money
      • shoe
      • thimble
      • top hat
      • wheelbarrow



The distribution of cash in the U.S. version has changed with the newer release versions. Older versions had a total of $15,140 in the following amounts/colors:

• 20 $500 Bills (orange)
• 20 $100 Bills (beige)
• 30 $50 Bills (blue)
• 50 $20 Bills (green)
• 40 $10 Bills (yellow)
• 40 $5 Bills (pink)
• 40 $1 Bills (white)

The newer (September 2008) editions have a total of $20,580, with 30 of each bill denomination. In addition, the colors of some of the bills have been changed; $10s are now blue instead of yellow, $20s are a brighter color green than before, and $50s are now purple instead of blue.
Each player begins the game with his or her token on the Go square, and $1,500 (or 1,500 of a localized currency) in play money. Prior to September 2008, the money was divided as follows in the U.S. standard rules:

• Two each of:
  
  
  • $500 bills
  • $100 bills
  • $50 bills
• Six $20 bills
• Five each of:
  
  
  • $10 bills
  • $5 bills
  • $1 bills

Since then, the US version has taken on the British version's initial cash distributions of:

• Two x $/£500
• Four x $/£100
• One x $/£50
• One x $/£20
• Two x $/£10
• One x $/£5
• Five x $/£1

Other items included in the standard edition are:

       A Title Deed for each property. A Title Deed is given to a player to signify ownership, and specifies purchase price, mortgage value, the cost of building houses and hotels on that property, and the various rent prices depending on how developed the property is. Properties include:

• 22 streets, divided into 8 color groups of two or three streets. A player must own all of a color group (commonly mistaken for being called a monopoly) in order to build houses or hotels. If a player wants to mortgage one property of a color-group, not only must any houses or hotels be removed from that property, but from the others in the color-group as well.
• 4 railways. Players collect $25 rent if they own one station, $50 if they own two, $100 if they own three and $200 if they own all four. These are usually replaced by railway stations in non-U.S. editions of Monopoly.
• 2 utilities. Rent is four times dice value if player owns one utility, but 10 times dice value if player owns both. Hotels and houses cannot be built on utilities or stations.

There are a deck of 16 Chance cards and a deck of 16 Community Chest cards. Players draw these cards when they land on the corresponding squares of the track, and follow the instructions printed on them.