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1936

Super Gold Set (21'-) - Long Box Trade Mark

Pat. App. for No 3796-36

Publisher: John Waddington Ltd.

Dimensions of the box: 26.5 x 51.2 x 4.0 cm

This gold coloured box is obviously the "Super Gold Set" mentioned in the above pricelist. The cardboard used for these boxes is covered with a structured gold coloured paper. The lid does not show the red "engines illustration" now but a very modest picture of this illustration as a blue logo in the upper left corner. This logo comes back on the gold coloured backside of the gameboard.

The most striking match is the weight of the board. The heavy gameboard of this variant weighs 696g, so almost as heavy as the one of the preceding black box and about half lighter than the modern boards of 352g. A second similarity between this edition and the "Standard Set (10'6)" is the fact that the innerbox has again 2 inserts, although narrower. That’s why there is more room for the solid Bankers Tray (28.6 x 25.5 cm) with 10 spaces, for more than the banknotes only. The trays for the cards and banknotes have a red ribbon.

The 7 very nice, metal tokens are resp. trophy with purple glass - tram car - rocking-horse - old-fashioned car - oil lamp with green glass - bath tub and candle stick.

The banknotes are the well known Monopoly notes, printed on coloured paper and provided with the mention "patt. app. for no 3796-36". The houses and hotels (with gold imprint Grand Hotel) are of smooth solid bakelite and don’t have overhanging roofs and/or chimneys. (Some later versions are less refined, smaller, lighter, non uniformed in size, sharper corners and edged, rough sides, frequently dark colors, the houses tend to have an olive shade and hotels maroon and without the Grand Hotel imprint.)

Both dice are of red bakelite with white pips.

The tokens and bakelite houses, hotels and dice for these editions were imported from Parker Brothers - USA. In later years "gold boxes" have also been issued in other countries. They sometimes surprisingly correspond to this English edition, like the German editions of about 1960.

Deluxe Presentation (42'-) - long box Trade Mark

Pat. App. for No 3796-36

Publisher: John Waddington Ltd.

Dimensions of the box: 26.7 x 50.8 x 4.0 cm

The most striking of this the most "Deluxe" set of this series of 4 different editions issued at the start in 1936 in Great Britain is its alligator skin pattern. It doesn't only covers the lid and bottom part of the box, but also the game board's back and the hard jacket of the Rules.

Except for the deed cards and Chance and Community Chest cards, which all have gold edges, the other parts like the special tokens, bakelite houses, hotels and dice are those of the Super Gold Set. Even the game board weighs extremely heavy again.

I cannot think up why the original price of this nice edition had to be twice the price of the Super Gold Set, except for the special alligator skin paper and perhaps a small production run of this issue?

1938

Deluxe Presentation (42'-) - Square Box

Trade Mark - Pat. App. for No 3796-36

Publisher: John Waddington Ltd.

Dimensions of the box: 27.2 x 27.2 x 9.5 cm

This is the square shaped brother of the above "Alligater" version.

The whole exterior of the box as well as large parts of the inner trays and the back of the game board is covered by this very special alligator skin (also called snake skin) paper. The height of the box is caused by 2 trays (one with 8 holes and one with 9) and the quarter fold board on top of them. The very heavy game board (840g) has Monopoly printed in gold, like on top the box, on one of the quarters. Also remarkable is the very broad rim of snake skin paper along the board.

Like in the long box with snake skin here again the deed cards and Chance and Community Chest cards have gold edges.

The tokens, dice, houses and hotels are the same as the long box.

The Rules are not in a hard jacket. For an answer on questions to the works a stamp of 1½d. is asked to inclose. This confirms the set to be from before WW II.