Vintage Monopoly Games

Early Monopoly Game Facts:

• 1934 Charles B. Darrow oil cloth with components in tie boxes.
• 1934 Charles B. Darrow 23" board with components in tie boxes.
• 1934 Charles B. Darrow White Box.
• 1935 Charles B. Darrow Small Black Box.
• 1935 Parker Brothers Trade Mark.
• 1935 Patent Pending.
• Nov. 1935 to Jan. 1936 - 1,509,312 Patent Game.
• Jan. 1936 to 1941 - 1,509,312 - 2,026,082 Patents Game.
• 1937 to Dec. 31, 1952 - 2,026,082 Patent Game.

• The First Edition Charles B. Darrow White Box Game used a unique style of money which has the value amount in the center only. (See Photo Gallery)
• The 2nd Edition Charles B. Darrow Game, which is the smaller Black Box, used money that not only has the value in the center, but also in each corner of the bill. Important to note that the $500 bills are Salmon (Pink) in color. (See Photo Gallery)
• This style of money including the Salmon $500's were then used by Parker Brothers in their early Trade Mark Sets. (See Photo Gallery)
• Later Trade Mark sets and most Patent Pending sets continued to use this style money, with the exception that the Salmon $500's were changed to Goldenrod. (See Photo Gallery)
• Parker Brothers Trade Mark Game Instructions were used for both Trade Mark and Patent Pending Games. Recently, a set of Patent Pending game instructions has been discovered, see gallery. These are extremely rare. There are also two hybrid sets of 1935 instructions that were the earliest to be used by Parker Brothers (see gallery).

• The 1935 Parker Brothers Trade Mark Set was the first set to have Playing Tokens - The early metal die cast tokens were made by the Dowst Manufacturing Company with a Zinc alloy called Zamak. It is also referred to as Pot Metal or White Metal. The dark oxidation, which is very common with many of the early tokens(1935-1938), was a result of impurities in the manufacturing process. By the late 1930s these impurities were eliminated. The tokens were the same charms as Cracker Jack used and were made by the same company, Dowst, out of Chicago. The Dowst Company invented die casting and also made the first die cast cars ... Tootsietoys!
• Wooden tokens were put into use in late spring 1936 and not just for WWII during the metal shortage.
• Composite tokens made of compressed paper and sawdust were made during WWII and used just after the War. Some collectors also say plastic was used. These tokens resembled a car, pig, train, cannon, elephant, iron, dog, bathtub, shoe, battleship, tank, horse & rider, figher plane (rare), and a DC-3 cargo plane (very rare).
• The copyright date on the instructions is not necessarily the manufacture date of the game. The copyright date can actually cover several different editions and manufacture years.
• Early game editions have the Copyright 1933 Chas. B. Darrow in the Jail Square. The 1934 and 1935 Charles B. Darrow Games had this copyright. When Darrow sold the game rights to the game to Parker Brothers in 1935, Parker Brothers Games maintained the Darrow Copyright on the board Jail Square through 1936.

• The first Darrow Property Cards were relatively simple with printing on a colored cardboard and blank backs. The 2^nd Generation Darrow Black Box initiated the card style we see today. The 2^nd Generation Black Box cards are the only ones that have a matching colored line border - the rest have a black line border. From the original Darrow White box & 2^nd Generation Black Box to the early 1,509,312 Patent game the property cards have blank backs.  Some early 1936 dual patent #7 games have been reported to have blank backs. 
• Marvin Gardens $22 rent is in every set prior to 1951. Yes, this was an error, but THIS IS NOT A RARE PROPERTY CARD.

• The original 1934 Darrow Game had 3/8 inch Silver colored hollow metal dice with punched holes.
• The 1935 2nd Generation Darrow Game is the only Monopoly Game set that used 3/8 inch BONE DICE.
• From the 1935 Trade Mark set into the 1940’s, mostly white bakelite dice were used. I have also seen wooden dice (both natural and red in color) and green or red bakelite dice.