Monopoly money is a type of

play money Play money is noticeably fake bills or coins intended to be used as toy currency, especially for classroom instruction or as a marker in board games such as Monopoly, rather than currency in a legitimate exchange market. Play money coins and bi ...

used in the board game ''

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

''. It is different from most currencies, including the American currency or

British currency Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO 4217, ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of #Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, its associated territori ...

upon which it is based, in that it is smaller, one-sided, and does not have different imagery for each denomination. It is not legal tender and has no monetary value in any jurisdictions.

Format

Many

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individua ...

of ''Monopoly'' exist, with many types of money representing various

currencies A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general def ...

. In the more "standard" versions of the game, Monopoly money consists entirely of notes. Monopoly notes come in the following colors: * $1 - White * $2 - Yellow (available in

Monopoly Junior Monopoly Junior is a simplified version of the board game Monopoly, designed for young children, which was originally released in 1990. It has a rectangular board that is smaller than the standard game and rather than using street names it is ba ...

) * $3 - Blue (available in

) * $4 - Green (available in

) * $5 - Pink * $10 - Yellow (classic) or blue (recent editions) * $20 - Green * $50 - Blue (classic) or purple (recent editions) * $100 - Red (early editions) or beige * $500 - Gold (classic) or orange (recent editions) * $1,000 (available only in Monopoly: The Mega Edition) - Purple (original) or yellow (recent editions) The modern ''Monopoly'' game has its Monopoly money denominated in $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and (in some editions) $1,000, with all but the last two paralleling the denominations in circulation in the United States. (The U.S. $500 bill and U.S. $1000 bill were withdrawn in 1969). Monopoly does not include a two-dollar bill; however,

did include the two in addition to three and four denominations (which do not exist in U.S. currency) for many years. (Monopoly Junior later simplified its system to include only one-dollar bills.) Fans have designed unofficial $1,000 Monopoly bills for longer games and made them available online. Special editions and spinoffs (e.g.

Monopoly Deal ''Monopoly Deal'' is a card game derived from the board-game ''Monopoly'' introduced in 2008, produced and sold by Cartamundi under a license from Hasbro. Upon its release, the game was generally well-received for its short playing time and play ...

) may use larger denominations. More recent ''Monopoly'' games use a ''Monopoly''-specific currency symbol of a double struck-through capital letter M, similar to the Won sign (₩) flipped upside-down.

As a phrase

"Monopoly money" is also a derisive term used in multiple senses. The most common is by countries that have traditionally had

monochromatic A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or color scheme, palette is composed of one color (or lightness, values of one color). Images using only Tint, shade and tone, shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or Black and wh ...

currency banknotes (such as the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) to refer to countries that have colorful banknotes (such as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

). This has been used in places such as the

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

song "

Canadian Idiot "Canadian Idiot" is a 2006 song and digital single by American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic from his album ''Straight Outta Lynwood''. It is a parody of Green Day's song " American Idiot". The song is a sarcastic parody of the stereotypic ...

". It can also be used as a derisive term to refer to money not really worth anything, or at least not being used as if it is worth anything.

References

External links

{{Monopoly Money Monopoly (game) Virtual economies