Hasbro has secretly released a Monopoly set with $23,000 in real money

Thursday, February 5, 2015 | BY CHELSEA STARK | Mashable

500 euro banknotes are seen on a Monopoly boardgame as employees prepare envelopes with cash during a commercial operation of the Monopoly game, on January 13, 2015 in Saint-Avold, eastern France.

IMAGE: PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP

Monopoly is a pastime about bankrupting your friends and rolling in that sweet — though fake — dough. But game tensions may be hotter for the 80 lucky people who unwrap Monopoly sets containing real cash.

As part of a promotion for the game's 80th anniversary in France, Hasbro has replaced the iconic paper bills with real euros in 80 regular Monopoly sets. One of those sets will have every play bill replaced with a real one for a total of 20,580 euros — about $23,268.

Ten sets will contain five 20-euro bills, two 50-euro bills and one 100-euro note, for a total of 300 euros, or around $370. Finally, 69 sets will contain five 10-euro bills and five 20-euro bills (150 euros or about $170).

"When we asked our French customers, they told us they wanted to find real money in their Monopoly boxes," Monopoly brand manager Florence Gaillard told The Guardian.

The Monopoly sets, released secretly on Monday, will be indistinguishable by weight, though Hasbro notes there will be a tiny difference in thickness thanks to the euro size. The 80 sets will be hidden amongst 30,000 boxes of Monopoly, Monopoly Junior, and electronic and vintage varieties.

Monopoly was originally adapted from a folk game called The Landlord's Game made by Elizabeth J. Magie Phillips in 1903. It was produced by Parker Brothers in the the 1930s, and went through a few evolutions before looking the very popular title we all know now. It is now available in 111 countries around the world in 43 languages.

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