New Issue: Monopoly (GB)

The next issue for Royal Mail is Monopoly and will be released on 16th October. This is to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the board game Monopoly.

Everyone knows about the Monopoly game. I would imagine that most of us have played it, often at Christmas time when the annoying uncle who cheats at every game is always in charge of the bank. What you might not know is that it a lot older than 90 and was first created in 1903 by an American called Lizzie Magie. It was originally called The Landlord's Game. According to Wikipedia, the idea of the game was to make some points about "the single-tax theory of Henry George as laid out in his book Progress and Poverty". I haven't read the book and reading up about land value tax isn't on my to-do list, but I think the main purpose of the game was to show how harmful monopolies can be.

For a game that was created to make some points about politics and economics it's done very well! In 1932 it was owned by a man called Charles Darrow and he made some changes and renamed it Monopoly. In 1935 he sold it to Parker Brothers, game giants in the USA, and then it really took off! They allowed licences for companies in other countries to produce Monopoly and one of the first to do this was Waddington's in Leeds in 1936.

So the claim that this year is the "90th anniversary of Monopoly" is factually incorrect. Monopoly was not created in 1935, whatever Hasbro (who took over Parker Brothers in 1991) say in their version of history. What actually happened 90 years ago is that Parker Brothers relaunched it and helped make it the hugely successful world-famous game it is now. Monopoly first appeared for sale in Britain in the following year. But it's really much older than 90 years old and it's not even a British game. You might think Royal Mail (and the Royal Mint for that matter) are being a bit dishonest about the facts to create an excuse to produce a set of stamps around an anniversary.

Anyway, what about the stamps themselves? There are ten of them and they show photographs of pieces on a Monopoly board. That's it. We see some of the famous locations on the board, the Go, Free parking and Chance squares, the classic playing pieces, dice, and houses and hotels. They're nice photographs, the kind of thing that we do at the camera club I'm a member of. Nothing wrong with them at all, but they're just photos of a board game.

Design Quality - I like that the designers have used the official Monopoly typefaces for the game's name and the "1st". But other than that there is nothing at all I can really say about the design. The photographs are just pictures of the game in play. I like the angles but it's standard stuff for a photographer. Did they really need ten of these stamps when four would have been enough? 3/10

Theme and Subject Choice - There is an anniversary of sorts and, although it is an American game, Monopoly has been popular in the UK for 90 years. 5/10

Historical and Cultural Relevance - As above. It's a popular game but do we really need a set of stamps? The anniversary claim seems a bit dishonest to me and I don't really see any great cultural relevance. It's interesting that the US Postal Service isn't doing anything to mark this anniversary. 2/10

Innovation and Creativity - There's nothing at all creative or innovative about these. 0/10

Collectability - You're going to get some people who really love Monopoly who will want to buy these. I can't see too many others getting excited about them. 4/10

Personal appeal - They're OK, but would I pay £17 for these? No way. 2/10

Overall score - 16/60

As anyone who plays the game will know, Monopoly can be guaranteed to get family members arguing! So I asked by family to give their views on these stamps. My mum: "It looks like an advert for Hasbro. It's not even as imaginative as the Monopoly promotion at McDonald's."

My dad: "They have a sense of style but don't really set the pulses racing."

My sister: "I like them They look cool. I like the way all the pieces, like the dog and the ship, have been included."