Monopoly money

Monopoly money
A Victorian gold sovereign, a modern £1 coin, and a vintage Monopoly money note, for comparison

Monopoly money is a type of play money used in the board game Monopoly. It is different from American currency in that it is smaller, one-sided, and different colors until a redesign by the United States Treasury Department of U.S. paper currency in the first decade of the 2000s, when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing adopted a very similar color scheme for the background color of U.S. paper currency.[1]

The colors used by Monopoly money, by denomination, is:

  • $1 - white
  • $5 - pink
  • $10 - yellow (blue in some recent editions)
  • $20 - green
  • $50 - blue (purple in some recent editions)
  • $100 - gold
  • $500 - orange
  • (Monopoly: The Mega Edition has $1000 - brown)

The modern Monopoly game has its Monopoly money denominated in $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, and $500, with all but the last paralleling the denominations in circulation in the United States (the U.S. $500 bill was withdrawn in 1969). Monopoly does not include a $2 bill; however, Monopoly Junior does include the $2 in addition to $3 and $4 currencies (which do not exist in U.S. currency).

A fan has created a website which has a pdf file containing four realistic $1000 Monopoly bills that can be printed out for players who want a larger denomination for longer games. However, these bills closely resemble older Monopoly bills made prior to the 1990s, which do not feature the word "MONOPOLY®" printed on them. [2]

Monopoly money is also a derisive term used in multiple senses. The most common is by countries that have traditionally had monochromatic money (such as the United States) to refer to countries that have colorful money (such as Canada). This has been used in places such as the "Weird Al" Yankovic song Canadian Idiot.

It can also be used as a derisive term to refer to money not really being worth anything, or at least not being used as if it is worth anything. [3] This has been used when large companies trade securities amongst various entities to create fraudulent profits, and when governments such as Burma issue special currencies to foreign aid organization that cannot be traded on the free market and are therefore not really worth anything.[4]

References

  1. ^ Bureau of Engraving and Printing web page about currently-issued denominations Retrieved 2011-03-03
  2. ^ .pdf file of $1000 Monopoly bills for printout Retrieved 03-03-2011
  3. ^ Boise, Craig M. (2005). Playing with ‘Monopoly Money’: Phony Profits, Fraud Penalties and Equity. 90. Minnesota Law Review. p. 144. 
  4. ^ Parry, Richard Lowe and Andrew Crowe. "Fifth of Burmese aid cash lost to exchange rate trick." The Times 25 July 2008, accessed at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4393554.ece on 25 July 2008

See also

External links


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Look at other dictionaries:

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  • Monopoly money — noun a) Play money printed on paper, especially differently colored denominations of the board game Monopoly. They did so to conceal the fact that they were playing with Monopoly money fabricating profits as phony as the pastel colored money used …   Wiktionary

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  • Monopoly money — Mo nopoly ,money noun uncount INFORMAL money that is treated as if it has little or no value …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • Monopoly (game) — Monopoly The Monopoly Logo Designer(s) Elizabeth Magie Louis Fred Thun[1] Charles Darrow Publisher(s) …   Wikipedia

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  • monopoly — (n.) exclusive control of a commodity or trade, 1530s, from L. monopolium, from Gk. monopolion right of exclusive sale, from MONO (Cf. mono ) + polein to sell, from PIE root *pel to sell (Cf. Skt. panate barters, purchases, Lith. pelnas …   Etymology dictionary

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