how much is the original monopoly board game worth

The circular one sold at Sotheby's was given in 1933 to Darrow's brother-in-law, J.Barclay Jones of Radnor, Pennsylvania and then to his mother-in-law, Emily Bishop Harvey of Radnor, and then in 1933-34 to her cousin, Margaret Bishop Dawson, from whom it descended to the consignor.'Įxactly 18 years later this circular oil cloth was sold again, for more than double the purchase price, at Sotheby's as it was announced on 17 December, 2010:Ī packed salesroom of toy collectors and enthusiasts watched as The Malcolm Forbes Toy Collection achieved $2,388,637 today at Sotheby’s New York. The record game consists of a manuscript 'board' on circular off-white oilcloth, 33½' diameter, the typscript set of rules on machine-made wove paper watermarked with an interlocking VV in an oblong lozenge, and 214 playing pieces, comprising 28 deeds, 14 Chance and 14 Community Chest cards, hotels and houses made of brown-stained pine, money in $500, $100, $50, and $20 denominations printed from line blocks in green (front) and yellow, yellow-orange, or orange (back), and seven playing tokens (possibly not original).ĭarrow's early calligraphic sets have generally turned up in Quaker families in the Philadelphia area.

Todd reportedly had his secretary make up a dozen sheets. Darrow asked Todd to write out the rules as he remembered them and change anything that needed improving. The rules are believed to have been supplied by a friend of Darrow's, Charles E.Todd of Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had taught the Darrows to play Monopoly. It is one of the earliest sets to survive, one of three calligraphic sets known to exist, and the only circular one. The game is drawn on a circular piece of oilcloth, probably the shape of Darrow's dining table.

'Forbes Magazine Collection Pays Record Price for Monopoly But Has No Monopoly on Monopoly.Īn original Monopoly game, handmade by Charles Darrow, probably in 1933, that descended through Darrow's brother-in-law's family sold at Sotheby's on December 16, 1992, for $ 71,500, a record for an American board game.The buyer was the Forbes Magazine Collection. The purchase of this set by The Forbes Magazine Galleries is described as follows in the Maine Antique Digest, Febr.

How much is the original monopoly board game worth