EARLY MONOPOLY
GAME BOX DESIGNS
1935 - 1954
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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.
CLICK HERE and you will go to a page from another Monopoly collectors web site showing a detailed list of dates for the legal statements on game boxes and boards. (Thanks, JP)
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.
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~~Black 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
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TRADE MARK (1935)
BLACK BOX
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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).
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PATENT PENDING (1935)
BLACK BOX
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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.
This number includes a very few No. 9 white box games where games already printed 'Trade Mark' had 'Patent Pending' added. As far as I know, only about 6 or so of these games exist today, none in my collection. Darn it!
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EARLY SINGLE PATENT (1935)
BLACK BOX
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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.
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DUAL PATENT (1936)
BLACK BOX
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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.
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~~Canadian~~
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~~Blue Boxes~~
Blue boxes were introduced early in 1936 and eventually replaced the black boxes with this label design. This label design did not survive 1936 with the black box, though the black box was continued with a different label, described later.
Parker Brothers had an office in London and included that city on the box tops. This office closed in 1940 and London was replaced by Chicago.
In 1937, Parker Brothers added "A PARKER TRADING GAME" to the box tops.
The boxes below show dual patents, single late patent, with the A PARKER BROTHERS TRADING GAME text, and without, and some have London and others Chicago. All these label varieties help to date the games within a few years.
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DUAL PATENT 1 (1936 - 1937)
BLUE BOX
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DUAL PATENT (1936)
No 7 for 8 Players
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DUAL PATENT 2 (1936 - 1937)
BLUE BOX
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Dual Patent (1937)
A PARKER TRADING GAME at top
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DUAL PATENT 3 (1937 - 1940)
BLUE BOX - LONDON
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LATE PATENT 1 (1941 - ??)
BLUE BOX - REG.
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LATE PATENT 1a (1941 - ??)
BLUE BOX - REGISTERED
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LATE PATENT 2 (1941 - ??)
BLUE BOX
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~~Diamond $ Boxes~~
The NEW EDITION game was Parker Brothers first new label design. There are 2 versions of this game, the brown box and black box versions. The brown box version was first, but didn't last very long before Parker Brothers chose to go with the black box version. I believe Parker Brothers found the brown boxes were too hard to come by.
The New Edition games are very hard to find. On Ebay, only 1 in 20 New Edition games are the brown box version, and the matching brown boards are even harder to find. Also, only about 1 in 20 of the games offered with this label say New Edition, the rest say A PARKER TRADING GAME. Conclusion - the black box and board is scarce, the brown box version is very scarce, and the brown New Edition board is rare.
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NEW EDITION (1936)
BROWN BOX
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NEW EDITION (1936 - 1937)
BLACK BOX
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In 1937, Parker Brothers added A PARKER TRADING GAME and the NEW EDITION title was gone.
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No 6 DUAL PATENT (1937 - 1940)
LONDON
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No 6 DUAL PATENT (1940 - 1941)
CHICAGO
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No 6 LATE PATENT (1946 - ??)
MARKED No 6
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LATE SINGLE PATENT
(1941 - ??)
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No 6 LATE PATENT (1941 - 1946?)
WOODEN PLAY PIECES
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Some believe production of this game with the metal player pieces was suspended during WWII and this box, with the metal player pieces removed from the label and wooden play pieces added to the game, was a concession to the shortage of strategic materials/metals. When production of games with metal play pieces resumed after the war, it included a different style cannon than the one pictured on the label, and also a different version of the car.
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~~Popular Edition~~
No 8 GREEN BOX
CANADIAN
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No 8 GREEN BOX (1936 - 1940)
DUAL PATENT - LONDON
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No 8 GREEN BOX (1940 - 1941)
DUAL PATENT - CHICAGO
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No 8 LONG GREEN BOX (1946)
ALLIGATOR TEXTURE BOX
RARE!
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No 8 LONG GREEN BOX (1951)
PEBBLE GREEN TEXTURE BOX
RARE!
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No 8 LONGER GREEN BOX
COPYRIGHT DATE 1954
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As early as 1936, Parker Brothers had sold licenses to sell Monopoly in other countries. The first were in Great Britain to John Waddington Printing and Canada to the Copp-Clark Company. Then John Waddington sold a license to John Sands in Australia and others. Monopoly became very popular world wide.
Canadian Monopoly games pretty much followed the Parker Brothers game designs, using the same box and board designs, and Atlantic City street names for properties. The British games had completely different game designs and used London street names for properties. Australia used the British game designs and properties.
Below are some early Canadian, British, and Australian game boxes.
Great Britain
GREAT BRITAIN
PRE WWII
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GREAT BRITAIN
WARTIME GAME
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MONOPOLY NOTE HOLDER
c.1936-1940
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Australia
AUSTRALIA
DELUXE GOLD EDITION
1936
Here is a Deluxe Gold Edition Monopoly game from 1936 made in Australia by John Sands Co. This version of Monopoly was also made by Parker Brothers in the U.S., John Waddington in the U.K., Copp-Clark in Canada, and in other countries. Each follows the same general pattern, but each has it's own character, as well. They are all very hard to find.
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AUSTRALIA
PRE WWII
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AUSTRALIA WWII GAME
BROWN PAPER SMALL BOX
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AUSTRALIA PRE WWII GAME
WHITE SMALL BOX
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AUSTRALIA 1950's POPULAR EDITION
SMALL GREEN BOX
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AUSTRALIA WWII LONG BOX
PLAIN CARDBOARD BOX
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No 9 WHITE BOX
DUAL PATENT - CHICAGO (1940 - 1941)
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EXTREMELY RARE!
CANADIAN WHITE BOX MONOPOLY GAME
PATENT APPLIED FOR
c. 1936
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Parker Brothers sold a license to manufacture and sell Monopoly games in Canada to Copp-Clark in late February, 1936. Copp-Clark immediately applied for a Canadian patent for the game. In November, 1936, the Canadian patent for Monopoly was approved. After that time, games were labeled with the Canadian patent 362,124.
However, described here is an even earlier Canadian form of Monopoly in the white box. Shows CANADIAN PATENT APPLIED FOR and CANADIAN (Trademark) REGISTRATION APPLIED FOR on the game box, instructions, and game board, with reference to the early Parker Brothers dual American patents. This game with these legals is extremely rare! By far, this is the rarest game in my collection! Many more of the very rare U.S. Trade Mark and Patent Pending games have been sold in the last few years than Canadian games with these legal statements. As nearly as I can tell, this is the first and ONLY KNOWN complete Canadian Monopoly game stating CANADIAN PATENT APPLIED FOR. Prior to the discovery of this game, all the earliest Canadian made Monopoly games were believed to already have the Canadian patent. The Monopoly Lexicon states that the first Canadian No 9 White Box game was produced about 1946.
If there are any more Canadian Monopoly games or game parts stating CANADIAN PATENT APPLIED FOR, please let me know and I will post that information.
PLEASE NOTE: I saw another White Box Canadian Monopoly game offered on Ebay recently with Patent Applied For on the game board. The rest of the game parts had the usual Canadian patent and registration numbers.
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