Having been published in more than 100 countries around the world, Monopoly has long been firmly established as one of the go-to names in board gaming. The property management game, which blends elements of pure chance with actual strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, is one of the most recognizable brands in gaming history.
Regular editions of the game, and specially themed versions are readily available for players and collectors at most stores that sell games. However, while most copies can be found for $20 to $50, there are some copies that could cause bankruptcy.
The FAO Schwarz in New York sold a custom, “One-Of-A-Kind” Monopoly for $100,000 back in 2000. It featured a suede-lined case, 18-carat gold tokens, street names written in gold leaf, as well as emeralds, sapphires and rubies embedded into the game board itself. The over-the-top set was made complete by using actual U.S. currency as the game money, rather than the colorful paper Monopoly money.
In 2011, The Strong National Museum of Play acquired one of the earliest handmade editions of Monopoly: one handmade by Darrow and his family on a circular oilcloth before they sold the game to Parker Brothers. One of maybe only 5,000 Darrow had made in the early 1930s, the copy of the game – which featured hand-drawn spaces on the game board – sold at Sotheby’s to the museum for $146,500. The Strong features a number of different editions of Monopoly in their museum, which is fitting, seeing as the game itself was inducted into the museum’s National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998.
However, none of those compare to the single most expensive Monopoly set ever produced: one worth roughly $2 million. The set’s extreme value was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, and the set itself was put on display at the Museum of American Finance. It features dice with 42 full-cut diamonds to signify the numbers, which alone are worth more than $10,000. The board itself, the cards, and all of the tokens are made out of gold. The game was originally made in 1988 by jeweler Sidney Mobell, who also made sure to incorporate a fair amount of precious gems into the set.
To learn more about collecting different editions of Monopoly, order a copy of The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Tabletop Games from gemstonepub.com.
