--- title: What Would Monopoly Money Be Worth Today if Adjusted for Inflation? description: Monopoly cemented its rules and money amounts in 1935. What would an update look like adjusted for inflation? authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z' modified: '2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Board Games - Currency - monopoly word_count: 360 canonical: https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Monopoly Value](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-160814334.jpg) When Monopoly came out in 1935, a $500 bill was worth way more than a $500 bill is worth now. In fact, if you have a $500 note, it's probably worth a ridiculous amount as a collectible, since [those bills were last printed in 1928](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denominations_of_United_States_currency#/media/File:US-$500-GC-1928-Fr-2407.jpg). (Actual bills aside, $500 back in 1935 had a lot more buying power, so the tiny fortune you start the game with today actually used to be a nice chunk of change.) Finding out how much $500 was worth back in the '30s is pretty easy, thanks to the [CPI Inflation Calculator](http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) the Bureau of Labor Statistics hosts on its website. Essentially, this calculator uses all the information about buying power of money in urban households based on standard goods and services a family might need and use. Here's what we get when we plug in a Monopoly game's typical amounts, rounded to the nearest dollar.
Amount in 1935Amount in 2016
$1,500 (total starting assets)$26,250
$500$8,750
$200 (passing Go/monthly salary)$3,500 ($42,000/yr)
$100$1,750
$50$875
$20$350
$10$175
$5$87.50
$1$17.50
Interestingly, the $200 salary given for passing "Go"—let's assume this is monthly—is eerily close to median household income ([$53,657](http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf)) today when adjusted for inflation, bringing it to roughly $42,000. Besides simply being a curiosity, comparing the present-day value of these bills is a reminder of how much small change really used to be worth. A quarter, for example, wasn't something you would ever walk past on the street or casually toss into a fountain—it had nearly the buying power of a five-dollar bill today. Looking at inflation this way also lends some perspective to the debate about getting rid of big bills, like the $100 and 500€ notes. While a hundred bucks is currently a lot of money, that may not be the case in 50 years (current low rates of inflation notwithstanding). That said, even if the value of $100 declines precipitously in the future, it wouldn't make sense to update the Monopoly bank to reflect today's dollars; the amount of paper required would be ridiculous. Of course, it wouldn't matter anyway: The [youngs don't carry cash](https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/millennials-cash-credit-mobile-banking/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Art and Culture", "item": "https://money.com/art-and-culture/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What Would Monopoly Money Be Worth Today if Adjusted for Inflation?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/", "name": "What Would Monopoly Money Be Worth Today if Adjusted for Inflation?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "What Would Monopoly Money Be Worth Today if Adjusted for Inflation?", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-160814334.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 1982, "caption": "Monopoly Value" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z", "description": "Monopoly cemented its rules and money amounts in 1935. What would an update look like adjusted for inflation?", "abstract": "Monopoly cemented its rules and money amounts in 1935. What would an update look like adjusted for inflation?", "@id": "https://money.com/monopoly-money-adjusted-for-inflation/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-06-09T16:36:37.000Z", "wordCount": 360, "keywords": [ "Board Games", "Currency", "monopoly" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Contents/Culture and the arts", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Culture_and_the_arts" ] } ] } ] } ```