80 French Monopoly sets will include real money

Aug. 27, 2008: Monopoly World Champion Antonio Zafra Fernandez holds up a Monopoly game box at a hotel in Madrid. (Reuters)

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of its release in France, the French version of Monopoly is slipping real money into 80 boxes of the game.

One box will have the full complement in real money – 20,580 euros or $23,600 – as well as the Monopoly money needed ti actually play the game. Hasbro says the other 79 boxes will have smaller amounts.

The operation to put the euro notes into the game was carried out secretly in the small town of Creutzwald, where the games are packed before being shipped throughout the country.

However, the added notes expand the box very slightly, making the package a bit bigger than the regular Monopoly games, The Guardian reports.

The Paris version of the game lets players buy the Champs Elysees, four railroad stations and other famous avenues of the French capital.

The game was created in the United State after the Great Depression and has become one of the most popular games in France. The game has sold 500,000 sets each year in the country alone.

The object of the game is to buy property around the board and turning the property into an empire charging opponents rent if they land on the certain square.

Hasbro says the game is available in 111 countries and 43 languages.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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