The purpose of this video is to assist in the identification and approximate dating of Monopoly games, specifically the number 9 edition, produced by the Parker Brothers company between 1961 and 1991.
If you were to go on eBay right now and search for “vintage Monopoly games,” you would be rewarded with pages and pages of old Monopoly games for sale, quite a few of which would say “1961” edition. Unfortunately, very few, if any, of these games actually date from 1961. The problem, for the most part, is not an attempt at deception by the sellers, but merely a lack of understanding of the history of the game, the company that produced them, and the copyright law in effect at the time. Let’s take a look at each of the unique iterations of the number 9 edition of Monopoly and see what clues exist to their actual production dates.
Starting with the oldest, here we have a Monopoly number 9 edition with a copyright date of 1961 on the board. Now, does this indicate that this particular game was produced in 1961? No, not at all. The copyright law in effect in the United States at that time granted the holder a 28-year term of exclusivity, with an option to renew for an additional 28 years at the end of the first term. So, unless there were some substantial change to a copyrighted product, there would be no need to renew the date printed on the product from year to year. So the fact that a game states “copyright 1961” indicates only that it was produced no earlier than 1961, but may have, in fact been produced much later…up to 28 years later to be precise. So then we have to look for other evidence, and in the case of Monopoly that evidence is inextricably linked to the history of the company itself. Parker Brothers was founded in Salem, Massachusetts in 1883 by George S. Parker, and for 85 years was a privately-owned, independent company. That changed in 1968 when he game-maker was purchased by General Mills, maker of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, among other popular breakfast cereals. General Mills was on a bit of a spending spree at that time; the following year they bought Lionel Trains, making them the owner of both the country’s premier game maker and premier model train producer. The acquisition of Parker Brothers by general Mills allows us to date the “1961” edition of Monopoly more precisely, because as you can see here, starting in 1968 the General Mills logo was added to the box. Everything else remained the same, including that 1961 copyright date. So, any “1961” Monopoly games with the general Mills logo were produced no earlier than 1968. This edition lasted until 1974, when the cover art was changed, so now we can say that the so-called “1961” Monopoly edition actually has a date range between 1961 and 1974. In 1974 the cover art for the number 9 edition was completely redesigned, as seen here. Note that many copies of this edition are also listed on eBay as the “1961” edition. This edition, with the new cover art can be dated as being produced from 1974 to 1985, the next time the cover art was altered. Two major changes took place in 1985: General Mills merged Parker Brothers with another of its toy making subsidiaries, creating Kenner parker Toys, Inc. and Rich Uncle Pennybags, renamed “Mr. Monopoly,” was added to the cover art. This arrangement, however, lasted only 2 years, as General Mills sold parker Brothers to Tonka, famous maker of toy trucks, in 1987. The 85/86 number nine edition can be identified by the Kenner Parker name on the side of the box. Starting in 1987, this was changed to Tonka. Just 4 years later, Tonka and Parker Brothers were bought by toy giant Hasbro, which already owned Parker’s long-time rival Milton Bradley. The acquisition spelled the beginning of the end for Parker Brothers and the venerable number 9 edition. By 1999, the classic large bi-fold board was replaced by the awkward quad-fold board and the venerable long box was shrunken down, and by 2009 the name Parker Brothers disappeared altogether from the game of Monopoly.
Key points of identification:
1961-1967: "Parker Brother's, Inc." logo on front of box, sticker on game board.
1968-1974: "A Parker game" logo on front of box, "General Mills" logo on side of box next to "Parker Brothers," no sticker on game board.
1975-1984: New cover art showing race car and dice on front of box.
1985-1987: "Mr. Monopoly" added to cover art, "Kenner-Parker" on side of box.
1987-1991: "Tonka" on side of box.