ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A children’s museum in Rochester, N.Y., has splurged $146,500 on the oldest known version of Monopoly handmade by inventor Charles Darrow.
The Strong’s National Museum of Play revealed Tuesday it was the winning bidder at Sotheby’s last week for the table-sized board game created around 1933 with pen-and-ink and gouache on a circular piece of oilcloth. It contains 200-plus pieces, including playing cards, hotels and bank notes.
Darrow, an unemployed heating engineer in Germantown, Pa., produced 5,000 copies of the real-estate trading game and sold them through a Philadelphia department store. Parker Brothers bought the rights in 1935.
The museum boasts the world’s most comprehensive collection of games, toys and play-related objects.
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