"Finance" was created by Dan Layman who played, with Louis, Louis and Fred Thun's version of the auction-monopoly games that had been spawned from "The Landlord's Game" at Williams College in Reading, PA. When the Thuns wanted to patent their game they found the "Landlord's Game" patent and only copyrighted their rule additions (additional railroads own double rent, Community Chest, paying $50 to get out of jail). With the "Monopoly" name and game then in the public domain, Layman decided to call the game "Finance". With L. S. Ayres & Co. then Electronics Laboratories, Layman published the game for a year before selling it to Knapp Electric for $200. Initially, the game was sold in small black boxes (some of which came with poker chips for money) with four different versions of the rules. Otherwise, it was almost identical to "Monopoly" including Chance and Community Chest cards.