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Number of versions: 3
1st edition: August 14, 1998
Revised: February 11, 2009
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Like many Arabian countries in the Middle East Oman had also been under the
influence of Great Britain for a long period, reason why the English
Waddington version of Monopoly, with the design of the London board was instead
of the American Parker version.
However, it is not likely the Monopoly editions available on the Oman market have ever been manufactured in
Oman itself.
 Edition: Standard
- with London board - "made in R.O.P."
Publisher: Unknown Pakistan manufacturer - ±1975
Dimensions of the box: 25 x 49 cm
The game:
The mention "made in R.O.P." is on both long sides of the
lid and may well be the abbreviation of Republic of Pakistan? Because
this country was a former British Protectorate and is an islamic country on the
other hand it is to be understood that a bilingual game
(Arabic/English) copied from the English edition with the streets of London is
in use. This
bilingual game also
exsists in a solid publication by Waddington UK (stock nr.46021 of ±1990), but
this issue is much
poorer in quality.
The fact the owner of this edition got it from a bussiness relation from Oman,
makes me assigning this set was bought in Oman, but made in
Pakistan.
Although the box with red/white/red
cover has a carton inner box with 7 sections for the banker everything is very
simple:
 | The game board is of soft carton. Its back is red. |
| The banknotes are made of translucent paper. The desing is
exactly copied from those of the equal UK edition, so provided with an engine, a house and 3 times
a value statement. At the back is a £-sign. |
| The houses and
hotels are made of plastic and have an overhanging roof-edge. |
| The 6 tokens are walking men (with hat) of poor moulded
plastic in various colors. |
| There is 1 green and 1 red
die of plastic. |
| The Chance and
Community Chest cards have rectangular corners. |
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Both Rules are printed on solid paper the English one mentioning
"Registered Trade Mark". |
The price amounted to RO 2500 in 1993.
Edition: Standard
- with London board.
Publisher: Unknown Pakistan manufacturer - ± 1975
Dimensions of the box: 25 x 49 cm
The game:
This edition is from the same collection as the "made in R.O.P."one.
This is again a very poor copy of the Waddington - UK game with the streets of London.
The only difference with the earlier described set is the illustration of Mickey Mouse in the
Community Chest space.
 Edition: Standard
- Blue box, with London
board.
Publisher: Monaka Games, Pakistan (?) - ±1980
Dimensions of the box: 27 x 41 x 4 cm
of the board: 49 x 49 cm
The game:
This edition is from the collection of Matthew Horton - UK.
 Justification
for the decision this game to be issued in Oman and the year of issue to
be abt. 1994:
| Matthew remarks he got this edition from a collegue who came
from a "Middle East country like Oman, Jordan, India or Pakistan". |
| The 6 tokens of this edition correspond precisely with the
description of those of the earlier mentioned
edition "made in R.O.P.": walking men (with hat) of poor moulded
plastic in various colors. |
| The Mickey Mouse figure on the board, but this time on the Chance
space. |
| The solid game board, with red
back, has all properties in English only, the names printed twice on the
fields. Also all property
deeds, the cards and the Rules are in English
only, which makes it doubtfull the set to be manufactured in Oman. |
| Of a population of 2.3 million some 600,000 expatriates (= 26%) live in
Oman, most of whom are guest workers from Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Egypt,
Jordan, India and the Philippines. |
 These
considerations makes me saying this set is most likely imported
by the
expatriates from Pakistan, because there, except for Arabic,
also English is spoken.
 Other
features of this editions are:
| The image of the board on the lid in a yellow
square must have
been mimiced from the European editions design of the seventies. |
| The word Monopoly in the centre of the board is in open
characters as it is f.e. in the
UK Waddington edition
Ref. #402 of 1972. |
| There is, of course, no copyright line under the word
Monopoly. |
| The property deeds are white and have a white mortgage back as well. |
| The rent on the unbuilt Piccadilly property is £22
the same as for the other 2 yellow streets. This error was in all Monopoly
editions worldwide till about 1982. |
| The Chance and Community Chest cards have rectangular corners. |
| The design of the 7 banknotes is an exact copy of
the official Waddington notes, on both sides, however the finish is very
poor.
They are printed in black on very thin, transparant colored
paper (like in various other Arab sets in these area's) in the
denominations £ 1
- 5 - 10
- 20 - 50
- 100
and 500. |
| The hollow green houses and red
hotels are of plastic. |
| Both dice are black and have white pips. |
| The Rules present are in English only. They show a "Monaka
Games" logo. |
From the above the conclusion must be the game to be published between ±1972
and ±1982, say ±1980.
See also the Monopoly editions issued in the
surrounding countries, like Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
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