Monopoly money
Monopoly money is a fictional unit used to buy property and pay rent, taxes, and other obligations in the board game.
It has no official exchange rate with the U.S. dollar, euro, or any real currency. Cartonindex assigns an economic reference from the nominal amount in a specific edition and the documented product price.
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Basic facts
- Universe: Monopoly.
- Trademark owner: Hasbro.
- Format: physical game banknotes.
- Legal tender: none.
- Convertibility: no official exchange for real money.
- Symbol used by Cartonindex:
Ⓜ, an editorial identifier, not an official Hasbro symbol.
Cartonindex uses Ⓜ to distinguish Monopoly money from real currencies. The symbol is a site convention.
How much money a standard game includes
Hasbro states that a standard edition contains 30 banknotes in each of these denominations:
- 500.
- 100.
- 50.
- 20.
- 10.
- 5.
- 1.
The nominal total is 20,580 units of Monopoly money.
This total is a reference for standard editions, not a universal rule for every Monopoly product. Junior, themed, electronic, and other editions can use different components.
The bank in the game
The bank manages money, unsold properties, houses, and hotels. It pays salaries and bonuses, collects taxes, and receives player payments.
The classic rules also state that the bank never goes bankrupt. If it runs out of banknotes, it can issue more money using ordinary paper. The money supply during a game is therefore not always limited to the physical contents of the box.
Cartonindex uses the amount included in the box because it is observable and reproducible. It does not treat that amount as the maximum supply for a game.
How Cartonindex assigns a price
The main reference uses two inputs:
- The nominal total of banknotes in the selected edition.
- The documented price of that edition.
The conceptual calculation is:
price per fictional unit = game price ÷ money included
This method has an important limit. The game price also pays for the board, tokens, cards, houses, hotels, packaging, license, distribution, and retailer margin.
Assigning the full product price to the banknotes overstates their material cost. Cartonindex treats the result as an editorial reference for the full product, not an official banknote price.
Available comparisons
- Argentine peso vs. Monopoly money.
- Venezuelan bolívar vs. Monopoly money.
- Japanese yen vs. Monopoly money.
- Colombian peso vs. Monopoly money.
- Chilean peso vs. Monopoly money.
- Euro vs. Monopoly money.
What the equivalence does not mean
The result does not let anyone exchange pesos or euros for Monopoly banknotes. It also does not allow each banknote to be sold for a proportional price or turn the game into a financial asset.
The comparison answers a narrower question: what does an amount of Monopoly money represent when the price of one edition is divided across the nominal total included?
Continue reading
- How are real and fictional currencies compared?.
- Nominal value, real value, and price.
- Cartonindex methodology.