Like Marmite, you love it or hate it. When I was a child we often played Monopoly in the family: my grandparents had (and I still have) an early Waddington's set with the metal pieces, marked 'Patent Applied For' - it was that new!
With the wide number of board, role-playing, and electronic games now available one might have expected Monopoly to have gone the way of Totopoly or PIT which, although they still exist, almost nobody has heard of.
But current owners Hasbro have widened the Monopoly appeal by producing multiple special and local editions, encouraging people to buy - for example - the Norwich, Prague, Grenoble, Dresden, Riyadh, and New South Wales. I'm sure many of these get played, for a while, but I wonder how many people in the UK play any Monopoly on a regular basis.
As you can see on Wikipedia, the game has a chequered history in the USA with the original inventor being paid only $500 by Parker Brothers. I wonder how many £200s Royal Mail will collect!
Royal Mail write:
Monopoly, one of the nation’s favourite board games, turns 90 this year, and its enduring popularity shows no signs of diminishing. The ‘fast-dealing property trading game’ originated in the US, but after securing the European licence in the 1930s, John Waddington Limited of Leeds created a brand-new version of Monopoly.
Featuring locations from around London, the game was transformed into a truly British icon, ensuring that family gatherings would never be the same again.
Today, the game is available in more than 100 countries worldwide and has been translated into over 40 languages. With many different themed versions to choose from, Monopoly continues to evolve and reinvent itself, as successive generations roll the dice, ‘pass GO’ and collect £200.
The stamps - 10 x 1st class
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| Row 1: Collect £200; Old Kent Road, Pentonville Road, Whitehall, Free Parking and Vine Street//Row 2: Park Lane, Liverpool Street Station, Oxford Street and Regent Street, Coventry Street, Chance. |
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| Monopoly Collector Sheet of 10 x 1st class stamps |
Technical details and acknowledgements
Hat-trick design are responsible for adapting the original images of the board. The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board, cards, and the playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment. © 1935, 2025 Hasbro.
The 41 x 30 mm stamps are printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography with PVA gum, perf 14½ x 14, in two sheets of 50 (se-tenant strips of 5).
We've been given no details for the Collector Sheet but can assume that it is printed by the same printers but on self-adhesive paper making the stamps different.
Products Available
Set of 10, Collector sheet, first day cover, presentation pack, stamp cards, 50p coin cover with either UNC cupronickel & brass (£19.99), silver proof (£75), or gold proof (£1595) coins.
There is also a framed version of both the set and the sheet, and a limited edition playing piece in the form of a silver plated King Charles postbox for £25.
These might be the worst Royall Mail stamps I've ever seen
ReplyDeleteTotally agree
DeleteThey've taken the word bland to a new low
DeleteWhat? Worse than Porridge?!!
DeleteOne (meagre) saving grace - at least the images of the Monopoly board have £ as the currency, rather than the modern 'Monopoly Money' (denoted by a double-struckthrough M).
DeleteCorrect, how awful. Another confirmation of the reason why I stopped collecting most issues a while back.
DeleteThe worst and most pointless set of stamps this year! Maybe for many years!
ReplyDeleteWe play board games, but not Monopoly. We do have a Welsh version though. And still have Totopoly.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many fantastic board games out there. The Catan series, Carcassonne, Munchkin. I have an app version of Ticket to Ride. Also have cards to change Chess - Knightmare Chess. Tile Chess you don't even need a board (OK, need a playing surface). There's one about the building of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Did you see Samuel West's background in videos by Exploring Stamps?
Boring
ReplyDeleteRobert
ReplyDeleteI and a few others that I know are now playing the online App game, 'Monopoly GO' which can be played any time and anywhere and is more interesting than the Stamps. RW
I must admit these do look awful, anyway I was reading an interesting article on Daily Mail stamps and addresses on envelopes will cease,, so it looks like collecting stamps will be a thing of the past, with new Post Boxes to be installed, I'm guessing they have to remove the Post Boxes at some point to add Prince Charles on them.
ReplyDeleteWhilst some new postboxes with the King Charles III cypher have been installed existing ones continue from previous reigns - which is why we still have so many Queen Victoria cyphered boxes in use.
Delete