Monopoly Pieces: From Original To Current Tokens (UPDATED!)

If you are interested to know about the Monopoly Pieces or the Monopoly Tokens, this is the post dedicated to you. You will find all the details related to Pieces that you use to play in Monopoly, with their history, how they evolve, and more.

Monopoly Pieces are the key equipment to start playing the game. These are symbols to denote a Monopoly Player playing the game.

There are as many tokens in a Monopoly game as the max number of people that can play that Monopoly Game Version.

Let’s get started!

Monopoly Pieces Change Over The Years

The initial years

The Parker Brothers launched the game Monopoly in 1935. The original version of the game came with no player tokens.

The inventor of the game, Charles Darrow, wanted the players to use household items like buttons as markers. It had only six tokens, namely iron, top hat, battleship, boot, cannon, and thimble.

Later, wooden tokens were included in the game. In 1936, the game included rubber tokens, such as a car, battleship, Monopoly dog piece, cat, shoe, iron, and train. 

As time progressed: World War II

The following year, the game introduced metal tokens, including a lantern, rocking horse, shoe, thimble, purse, and top hat.

Then came World War II, creating a shortage of metals in America. Therefore, in 1942 the game returned to using wooden tokens because metal became expensive. 

As time progressed: Post World War II

Interestingly, in the 1950s, a few items like a rocking horse, lantern, and purse were replaced with a wheelbarrow, dog, rider, and horse.

But the ten tokens, including cannon, battleship, horse and rider, dog, thimble, iron, racecar, wheelbarrow, iron, and hat, remained intact until the late 1990s.  

Things That Caused Change in Monopoly Tokens

The Change of Ownership

In 1991, the Monopoly game changed hands from Parker Brothers to a game company called Hasbro. In fact, Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers.

Hasbro brought numerous licensed versions of the game, unlike Parker Brothers, which only offered two versions: a regular and a deluxe.

As a result, the board game world was inundated with hundreds of special editions. In addition, newer tokens emerged with each special edition.

For example, a Pikachu in the “Pokemon” version, the captain’s chair in the “Star Trek” version, and a horse’s head in “The Godfather” version. 

The poll

In 1998, Hasbro polled the public to know about their favorite token. The car and dog turned out to be the most popular token, whereas wheelbarrow, thimble, and iron were the leave popular.

In this poll, the company also asked people to vote for new tokens, which included “a bag of money,” a piggy bank, and a plane. Interestingly, “a bag of money” received the highest vote.

As a result, it was added to the game, making the total number of tokens 11.   

Monopoly Tokens From Original To Current With Story

Token name	Introduced	Retired/Replaced	Returned	The story
Top Hat	1935	None	Continues till date	Based on the main hat the game’s lead character, Mr. Monopoly, wears. People speculate this character is a reflection of  JP Morgan. He was initially known as Rich Uncle Pennybags
Battleship	1935	None	Continues till date	Battleship is not an exclusive token for Monopoly. Previously it was used in a game called “Conflict,” and now it is also a part of the game known as “Diplomacy.”
Shoe	1935	2017	–	A shoe or boot symbolizes hard work and the riches that come with it.
Race car	1935	None	Continues till date	The race car was designed for Mr. Monopoly to drive around. Initially, it looked like a 1030s roadster but underwent several design changes in the 1960s.
Purse	1935	The early 1950s	–	It is the eighth member of Monopoly’s token family. It remained with the game in its expansionary phase. However, as the game was scaled down, the purse was dropped.
Cannon	1935	2000	–	Cannon to was a part of the “Conflict” and shifted to Monopoly when the former failed. Its original shape was changed in 1946 to look like a long cannon.
Thimble	1935	2017	2022	Thimble is the choice of US Monopoly champion Richard Marinaccio. It was not there from 2017 to 2022. Finally, it made a comeback on 2022 in the month of May replacing another piece T-Rex.
Iron	1935	2013	–	Iron has been the least popular token. In a vote where fans of Monopoly were asked which token they wanted to add to the game, iron received as low as 8% vote.
Rocking Horse	1936	1950s	–	It is one of the rarest pieces
Lantern	1936	1950s	–	It used to be tied to the rocking horse. Now retired.
Wheelbarrow	1940	2017	–	This token came to replace the lantern, purse, and rocking horse. It symbolized hard work and was needed to build properties around the board. However, over time it lost its popularity.
Horse and Rider	1940	2000	–	Although this token made a mark in the 1950s, its glory faded in later decades.
Scottie Dog	1940	None	Continues till date	This token is Mr. Monopoly’s right-hand man/pub. It is one of the most loved and most-voted tokens.
Howitzer	1946	None	Continues till date	–
Money Bag	1998	2007	–	Beating the piggy bank and the bi-plane, this token found its place in the game. 51% of 1.5 million people voted for it.
Cat (Hazel)	2013	None	Continues till date	This one is another popular piece in the game. It came to fame by defeating a guitar, a toy robot, a diamond ring, and a helicopter.
T-Rex	2017	2022	–	This recent addition received more votes than any new potential piece in 2017. But, again in 2022 it left and Thimble had a comeback.
Rubber Ducky	2017	None	Continues till date	–
Penguin	2017	None	Continues till date	–

The Retiring Tokens

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, some of the game’s tokens retired without any replacement. They were horse and rider and cannon, which retired in 2000, and the bag of money in 2007.

Consequently, the total number of tokens came down to eight. 

Here is the list of the discontinued/retired Monopoly Tokens:

1. Cannon: introduced in early 1935, retired in 1946
2. Iron: introduced in early 1935, retired in 2013
3. Thimble: introduced in early 1935, retired in 2017
4. Boot: introduced in early 1935, retired in 2017
5. Purse: introduced in late 1935, retired in 1950
6. Lantern: introduced in 1936, retired in 1950
7. Rocking Horse: introduced in 1936, retired in 1950
8. Horse and Rider: introduced in 1940, retired in 2007
9. Wheelbarrow: introduced in 1940, retired in 2017
10. Howitzer: introduced in 1946, retired in 2007
11. Money Bag: introduced in 1998, retired in 2007
12. T-Rex: introduced in 2017, retired in 2022

The Replacements to the Retired Pieces

Between 2013 and 2017, the game company undertook some promotional campaigns and made certain piece decisions.

For example, in 2013, they replaced the iron with a cat and dropped three more pieces, a wheelbarrow, shoe, and thimble, in 2017. In place of these tokens, the company introduced a penguin, a Tyrannosaurus rex, and a rubber duck. 

Later in 2022, again the T-Rex was replaced by the Thimble token and it was done through fan votes.

Monopoly Tokens Based on Monopoly Versions

If you have already checked any other Monopoly versions, then you will find that the tokens differ from game to game.

Here are the detail of the pieces/tokens in different Monopoly Game Editions:

Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition Tokens

This edition has merely six tokens: 

• Segway
• Space shuttle
• Flatscreen TV
• Baseball Cap
• Altoids Container
• Dog in a handbag

Monopoly Super Electronic Banking Tokens

There are 4 plastic Tokens in the game:

• an Aeroplane,
• A Car,
• a Safe, and
• a Shopping Bag

Monopoly Ultimate Banking Edition Tokens

• Green helicopter
• Red car
• White jet
• Blue boat

These four tokens are made of plastic. 

Monopoly Cheaters Edition Tokens

• Hazel The Cat Burglar
• Scottie Dog
• The Getaway Car
• Corporate Penguin
• T-rex With An Extender-Arm
• The Top Hat

Monopoly Here and Now Edition Tokens

• The baseball glove
• The statue of liberty
• A trolley
• A cowboy hat

Monopoly Deluxe Edition

There are 10 tokens in Deluxe Edition. The tokens in Monopoly Deluxe Edition are metallic with golden color.

The tokens are:

1. Scottie the Dog,
2. Thimble,
3. Car,
4. Horse with Rider,
5. Top Hat,
6. Cloth Iron,
7. Wheelbarrow,
8. Battleship,
9. Boot,
10. Cannon.

The Monopoly Token Vote With Results

In 2022, Hasbro put Monopoly tokens to vote for its next-generation version.

Fans of the game voted for different tokens. There were 4.3 million votes. The table below will show the tokens and their vote results.

Position	Monopoly Pieces	Vote Results
#1	Scottish Terrier	212,476
#2	T. Rex	207,954
#3	Top Hat	167,582
#4	Racecar	165,083
#5	Rubber Ducky	160,485
#6	Cat	154,165
#7	Penguin	146,661
#8	Battleship	134,704

Source

Special Monopoly Tokens

Unlike the standard tokens which are either made of plastic or metal, special Monopoly tokens can come in gold.

For example, Franklin Mint set contains 22-karat gold plated tokens, and the £1.3 million “Monopoly” set of Sidney Mobell has 18-karat solid yellow gold. 

Monopoly Token FAQs

Conclusion

Let’s conclude the post on Monopoly Pieces!

These Monopoly Tokens keep evolving and new tokens replace the older ones. This article will keep track of every other update happing in Monopoly Game tokens. So, you can bookmark this to refer to it later.

I hope you enjoyed reading the post.