Monopoly money worth more than what’s in your wallet?  Much more, if it comes from the earliest surviving monopoly set, hand made by the inventor of the game, and shaped to fit his dining room table.  It is expected to fetch $60,000-$80,000 at Sotheby’s tomorrow when the huge toy collection of the late Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) is sold at auction.

The collection is most famous for its huge assortment of boats and ships, dating from the mid 19th century.  David Redden, vice-president at Sotheby’s tells a story of Forbes’ childhood:

As a boy, Malcolm was traveling on an ocean liner with his family, and he attached his favorite toy ship to a very long string and lowered it into the Atlantic to sail behind the liner.  The toy of, of course, was lost.  “There really is a Rosebud sense to all of this,” says Redden.  “He was trying to bring back that lost toy of his childhood.” http://www.npr.org/2010/12/16/132084278/malcolm-forbes-toy-auction-could-bring-in-millions

Toy collector, Leon Weiss, who sold Forbes some of his ships agrees: “I personally believe that old toys transcend generations. For me, it evokes an emotion and triggers a memory.”

Malcolm, third from right, 1924

“This…takes people back to their childhoods,” says Redden. “Whether or not you had a battalion of toy soldiers or a fleet of ships, you wish you had had them.”