Have you ever wished that Monopoly money was real? To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the classics board game‘s first appearance in France, American toy and board game retailer Hasbro, is making that wish come true, by concealing real money in 80 new sets.
In one set, every note in the game will be replaced by real money, adding up to a total of €20,580. Not enough to buy a house let alone a hotel in this day and age but still a significant windfall.
An additional 10 sets will contain five €20 notes, two €50 notes and one €100, adding up to €300. A further 69 sets will contain five €10 notes and five €20 notes, for a total €150 – still more than enough to cover the RRP of the classic family board game several times over.
“We wanted to do something unique,” said Florence Gaillard, Brand Manager at Hasbro France, which unveiled the special sets on Monday.
“When we asked our French customers, they told us they wanted to find real money in their Monopoly boxes,” she explained.
The operation to hide real money in the sets was carried out secretly in the North-Eastern town of Creutzwald and Gaillard revealed that Hasbro even hired a bailiff specially to count out the cash!
“Whey they asked me, I was a giddy as a child,” said Patrice Wimmer, the bailiff selected and a long-time aficionado of “The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game” in which players attempt to bankrupt each other through their acquisition of cardboard real-estate.
Wimmer revealed that the boxes containing the Euro notes bulged very slightly (ka-ching!) but said that this was unlikely to prove a giveaway for anyone keeping an eye out for the cash-laden sets.
“The difference is marginal, unless you turn up at the shop with precision scales,” he said.
Hasbro France said that the 80 special sets were concealed among 30,000 boxes across four versions of the game: classic, junior, electronic and vintage. Hasbro has owned the rights to Monopoly since purchasing original manufacturers Parker Brothers in 1991.
Monopoly, one of the most successful board games ever and cause of countless family arguments, is currently available in 111 countries in 43 languages. In France alone about 500,000 sets are sold annually.
