Lost the rules to Monopoly and need to settle an argument with someone who has “been playing it since they were a kid?” More importantly, do you need to know how much money you start out with in Monopoly? Here’s your definitive answer.
It depends on your version of Monopoly, but the classic version (and many derivatives) has you start with $1500.
There’s also a suggested way to divvy out the bills, which has changed over the years. The way I remember it from years ago is:
- 2 x $500
- 2 x $100
- 2 x $50
- 6 x $20
- 5 x $10
- 5 x $5
- 5 x $1
If someone tells you that’s the way they remember it, they’re not wrong. However, some time in recent years, this changed. It now often looks like:
- 2 x $500
- 4 x $100
- 1 x $50
- 1 x $20
- 2 x $10
- 1 x $5
- 5 x $1
A bit harder to remember, but who carries small change these days? Really, it doesn’t matter how you choose to hand out the bills. That’s just what’s suggested in the manual. What matters is what they add up to: $1500. You can give everyone three $500s and make change from there if you want to.
The distribution of bills was largely just to avoid running out of a particular value. However, the amount of money contained in a new box of Monopoly has changed over the years, so that’s less of a problem.
Note that this only applies to classic, vanilla Monopoly, as well as versions that follow the same values. Others, like Monopoly Empire and Monopoly Junior have different economies that require different amounts, and it isn’t always even.
