1935 Original Tokens: (L-R) Thimble, Boot, Top Hat, Iron, Cannon, Battleship
Tokens are the playing pieces used in the Monopoly board game. They differ depending on the edition and the year of release of an edition. Standard editions, however different they are, usually use pewter tokens. In 1998, a new piece was voted on to be added to the existing 10 ( 11 in gold sets) The winner was a sack of money, which appeared in most standard editions until its retirement in 2007.
[1][2]"Monopoly" playing pieces, often referred to as tokens, date from 1935 when Parker Brothers bought the game rights. Prior to this, no playing pieces were supplied with the game. Players used familiar objects such as buttons and charms for tokens. The first tokens were added in late 1935 based on cake charms and cracker jack. and they were: a cannon, thimble, top hat, iron, battleship, and boot. Later in 1936, the Racecar was added to the 6 token sets and then in about the middle of 1936, the Purse was added to make 8 token sets. In late 1936 and early 1937, the Lantern and Rocking Horse were added to make 10 token sets. Shortages of raw materials during the war years failed to disrupt "Monopoly" production, but components, including playing pieces, were replaced with lower quality alternatives. the Lantern, Rocking Horse, and Purse tokens are especially hard to find and are exceedingly rare as they were dropped after WWII and only appeared in a few sets.
Early Pieces[]
1936 Tokens (Deluxe Set) (L-R, T-B) Chalice, Bathtub, Elephant, Lantern, Candlestick, (starting at the bottom left corner) Trolly, Boot, Battleship, Top Hat, Car With Driver.
The first pieces, from 1935 to about 1938, were made by the Dowst Manufacturing Company, makers of "Tootsietoys." These were die-casts from Zamak, a zinc alloy also known as white metal, monkey metal, pot metal, or die-cast zinc. Impurities in the manufacturing process caused some of them to oxidize and turn black. Later non-tarnishing tokens were made of lead and tin. These non-tarnishing playing pieces appeared in sets licensed by Parker Brothers throughout the world, although some prewar Canadian sets included generic turned wood pawns of various shapes.
War-time Playing Pieces[]
WWII Wooden Tokens
The metal was needed for the war effort, so wood pawns were used for most "Monopoly" pieces during that time. A few games had composite playing pieces made of compressed paper and sawdust. These playing pieces were fragile, and since not many were produced they became collector's items. In the United Kingdom, some sets used wood pawns from the game "64 Milestones" as tokens, but the majority were cardboard cut-outs slotted into black wooden bases.
Immediate Post-war Pieces[]
Post-WWII Tokens (L-R, T-B) Thimble, Airplane, Top Hat, Car With Driver, Horse And Rider, (bottom left corner) Howitzer, Scottie Dog, Wheelbarrow, Iron, Battleship.
After the war the token lineup began to experience some change most notably: of these tokens from 1946 include: a car with driver (which occasionally would be used in place of the race car) howitzer (which outright replaced the cannon), airplane (which replaced the Boot in sets that included it), as well as the dog, horse, and rider, and wheelbarrow (which replaced the purse, rocking horse, and lantern) Some of these can be seen in the photo above. The Car With Driver started out in the extremely rare 1936 deluxe edition (see above), but with a slightly different design. These tokens never appeared again after 1937 except for the afformentioned which was added into the game and appeared sporatically from circa 1946-1953. At this same time as the race car was being redesigned and the cannon was dropped all together in favour of a Howitzer, though both pieces (along with the Battleship) originate from the game "Conflict" by Parker Brothers, this disproves the common myth that the Cannon was simply redesigned to become the howitzer, as the game "Conflict" has both and lists them as seperate pieces. Dowst focused on die-cast toys after the war, so Parker Brothers produced its own pewter playing pieces based on the Dowst originals. In 1948, the United Kingdom sets used cardboard cut-outs in colored bases. In 1953, these were replaced by tokens cut from sheet metal, which were fitted with metal stands. These were the standard pieces until the 1960s when the pewter tokens replaced them.
1990s-present[]
In 1997 the Sack Of Money was added to the game which brought the number of tokens to 11 (12 in gold sets, because of the train) the Sack Of Money along with the Train, Horse And Rider, and Howitzer were all dropped in 2007 when the number of tokens was decided to be limited to 8. In 2013 the Iron was retired and replaced with the cat and in 2017 the Thimble, Wheelbarrow, and Boot were all replaced with the Rubber Duck, T Rex, and Penguin. The T Rex was replaced in 2022 when the Thimble was brought back and the same thing happened to the Battleship in 2025 when the Sack Of Money was brought back.
Special Playing Pieces[]
While standard Hasbro Monopoly sets throughout the world contain the traditional pewter tokens, specially commissioned and commemorative sets have used a variety of materials for playing pieces. "Franklin Mint" sets have 22-karat gold plated playing pieces while the 75th Anniversary "Revolution" edition has plastic tokens depicting outlines of the original Dowst pieces. Sidney Mobell's £1.3 million "Monopoly" set has 18-karat solid yellow gold. In the 1980s golden sets would come with the special Train token which was gold.
The 4 tokens in this edition has the affiliated colors and resources to build buildings. They are the construction workers for Mr. Monopoly to build on Monopoly Island.
The standing playable tokens are (from the left): Gary, SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, Squidward, and Sandy. The optional non-playable coin-like token is Plankton.
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