The Monopoly pieces – officially called ‘tokens’ – are what you use to represent yourself during a game. You might have noticed that different Monopoly sets have different tokens, figures and characters as the pieces have changed over the years.
I’ve put together this guide to all the Monopoly tokens in detail, from the very first ones to the current Monopoly playing pieces that are in the latest editions of the game.
The current Monopoly tokens list for current-edition games is:
- Dog
- Cat
- Battleship
- Penguin
- Rubber Ducky
- Top Hat
- Race Car
- Thimble
The Original Monopoly Pieces
When the original Monopoly game first launched, it didn’t come with any tokens. Players were encouraged to use buttons or charms from their own homes.
When Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly in 1935 they introduced six original tokens: the battleship, boot, cannon, thimble, top hat, and iron.
The six original Monopoly pieces in 1935:
- Battleship
- Boot
- Cannon
- Thimble
- Top Hat
- Iron
Later in 1935, the race car was added to the game to make seven Monopoly tokens, and shortly afterwards, the purse was added to make eight.
Over the next 12 months, two more pieces were added: the lantern and the rocking horse to make what is considered to be the ten classic Monopoly pieces [Sources: 1,2].
Monopoly Pieces Over The Years
It’s worth noting that there’s some contention over the exact dates for when tokens were introduced, so I’ve used the best estimates.
Early Monopoly Tokens
Old Monopoly pieces were made from a zinc alloy known as Zamak. These were replaced later in the 1930s by the traditional tokens made from a mix of lead and tin, which didn’t oxidize and turn black in the same way as the Zamak tokens sometimes did.
The first playing pieces were made by Dowst Manufacturing Company. When Parker Brothers began to license the game around the world they included the same pieces with the game.
Monopoly Tokens During The War
When America became involved in the Second World War, the metals used to make the die-cast pieces were instead needed for the armed forces and other essentials. So instead, wooden Monopoly pieces were introduced.
The wooden Monopoly piece looked like a pawn from a chessboard but in various colors and designs. They had already been used in earlier versions of Monopoly original in Canada.
Some games were produced with composite pieces, made from a mix of paper and sawdust. These vintage Monopoly game pieces were flimsy and fragile, so they weren’t as popular as the wooden ones. The composite pieces are collector’s items now, as some of the rarest Monopoly characters you could find.
Post-War Monopoly Tokens
Once the war ended, the Dowst Manufacturing Company decided to focus on die-cast toys instead of making playing pieces for board games. So, Parker Brothers brought manufacturing in-house and started using pewter. Some versions of the game still use metal Monopoly pieces, while others used plastic.
The first new Monopoly board game pieces to be introduced were the wheelbarrow in the 1940s, along with the horse and rider and the Scottish terrier (one of my favorites).
The car also gained a driver in the 1940s, although he only lasted until 1950. In 1946 the cannon was replaced with the similar howitzer, while an airplane was also introduced – but only until 1950 again.
Three other pieces from Monopoly classic editions were retired in 1950 – the lantern, the rocking horse, and the purse.
Monopoly Tokens From 1950 until 2000
From 1950 until 1998 the Monopoly game pieces stayed the same as those from most old Monopoly game editions – they were the dog, battleship, race car, top hat, iron, horse and rider, and howitzer. Those eight Monopoly game pieces formed the backbone of the game for many years.
But, while the Monopoly tokens stayed the same, they did shrink in size! This is demonstrated in this photo which shows Monopoly tokens from the 70s compared with modern tokens…
In 1998, with Hasbro now in charge, a new playing piece was added. 1.5 million people voted in a competition to decide whether the new token would be a sack of money, a piggy bank, or a bi-plane.
With 51% of the vote, the sack of money won. It was used for a decade before retiring in 2007.
Monopoly Tokens From 2000 Onwards
The sack of money was not the only Monopoly piece to be retired in 2007. Two other Monopoly pieces – the horse and rider, and the howitzer – were also retired that same year.
No more changes would be made until 2013 when the decision was made to retire the iron. Another vote was held, and the cat won out over the diamond ring, toy robot, helicopter, and guitar.
Although the Monopoly cat didn’t have a name at first, she has since been named Hazel.
In 2017, the thimble, the wheelbarrow, and the boot became the latest retired Monopoly pieces. They were replaced in another popular vote, this time by the penguin, the t-rex, and the rubber ducky.
The Latest Monopoly Token Vote
On 28th April 2022, Hasbro announced that it would be bringing back one of the old Monopoly tokens from retirement for the new Monopoly game edition.
Monopoly fans across the world had the chance to vote on one of six retired tokens to bring back. They also voted on which of the current pieces would go.
The Monopoly tokens you could vote to bring back were:
- Wheelbarrow (1940 – 2017)
- Thimble (1935 – 2017)
- Iron (1935 – 2013)
- Horse & Rider (1940 – 2007)
- Boot (1935 – 2017)
- Money Bag (1998 – 2007)
The Monopoly tokens you could vote to remove were:
- Scottie Dog (Since 1940)
- Hazel Cat (Since 2013)
- Battleship (Original)
- Penguin (Since 2017)
- Rubber Ducky (Since 2017)
- Top Hat (Original)
- T-Rex (Since 2017)
- Race Car (Since 1935)
On 31st May 2022, Hasbro announced that the Thimble was the winner and would be making a comeback. Sadly, the T-Rex has now been made extinct.
The tokens were changed in Fall 2022 in the US and Spring 2023 globally. Here’s what the latest Monopoly sets look like, with the Thimble token…
List of Current Monopoly Tokens
The current Monopoly tokens are:
- Dog
- Cat
- Battleship
- Penguin
- Rubber Ducky
- Top Hat
- Race Car
- Thimble
Here’s a full list of old and new Monopoly pieces with dates:
| Token | Introduced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Cannon | Early 1935 | 1946 |
| Iron | Early 1935 | 2013 |
| Thimble | Early 1935 | 2017 |
| Thimble (comeback) | 2022 | Current |
| Boot | Early 1935 | 2017 |
| Top Hat | Early 1935 | Current |
| Battleship | Early 1935 | Current |
| Race Car | Mid 1935 | Current |
| Purse | Late 1935 | 1950 |
| Lantern | 1936 | 1950 |
| Rocking Horse | 1936 | 1950 |
| Horse and Rider | 1940 | 2007 |
| Wheelbarrow | 1940 | 2017 |
| Scottie Dog | 1940 | Current |
| Howitzer | 1946 | 2007 |
| Money Bag | 1998 | 2007 |
| Cat (Hazel) | 2013 | Current |
| T-Rex | 2017 | 2022 |
| Penguin | 2017 | Current |
| Rubber Ducky | 2017 | Current |
Although some tokens have remained in the game over the years, just like many things, they have gotten smaller. Take a look at this photo on Reddit that demonstrates…
Old vs New Monopoly pieces
byu/OverclockingUnicorn inWellworn
Special Monopoly Tokens
So far, we’ve discussed the tokens present in the US classic editions of Monopoly over the years. However, it’s worth mentioning that many of the hundreds of different Monopoly editions come with their own themed tokens.
The Mario Kart Monopoly game, for example, has Mario Kart characters, Pokémon Monopoly unsurprisingly, has Pokémon as the playable tokens, including Pikachu and Charmander.
Across the various special editions of Monopoly, there are literally hundreds of different playing tokens to choose from.
You can also get collectible Monopoly token surprise packs that come with five new tokens.
80th Anniversary Edition Tokens
In 2015 Hasbro released a special 80th Anniversary Edition of Monopoly. While other anniversary editions have been released, this one is notable as it used a mix of classic Monopoly pieces with some from outside the main line. The idea was to use one token to represent each decade.
Tokens in Monopoly 80th Anniversary Edition:
- 1930s: Lantern
- 1940s: Bathtub
- 1950s: Cannon
- 1960s: Horse and Rider
- 1970s: Pillar with race car on top
- 1980s: Train (used in the Deluxe Edition of the game)
- 1990s: Sack of Money
- 2000s: Cat
Monopoly Token Madness
In 2017 a special version of Monopoly named Token Madness was released. The key difference was that it included 16 tokens in total, with 8 classic pewter pieces and 8 modern gold ones.
The classics included the dog, the thimble, the classic car, the cat, the battleship, the top hat, the wheelbarrow, and the boot.
The modern pieces included a penguin, a CRT television, a modern race car, a rubber duck, a wristwatch, a wheel, bunny slippers, and a Mr. Monopoly emoji.
Monopoly Pieces In The UK
For most of Monopoly’s history, the UK has used the same playing tokens as the US game. It was only in the early years that the UK was different. During World War II some wooden pawns from a different game, ’64 Milestones’, were often used. After the war, these were replaced with cardboard cut-outs on colored bases. [Source]
The UK Monopoly tokens were changed again in 1953 for sheet metal tokens, fitted into metal stands. They remained this way until 1960 when the pewter tokens started to be used.
Monopoly Token FAQs
The current Monopoly tokens are the dog, the battleship, the race car, the top hat, the cat, the penguin, the thimble, and the rubber ducky. The T-Rex became extinct in May 2022 when it was replaced by the thimble – a piece that was originally retired in 2017.
There are currently eight Monopoly tokens in the game. These are the dog, the battleship, the race car, the top hat, the cat, the penguin, the thimble, and the rubber ducky. Two of the current Monopoly pieces – the battleship and the top hat – survive from the very first tokens introduced in 1936.
There’s no confirmed story for the inspiration for the Monopoly tokens, but the best-accepted theory is that the iron, thimble, and boot represented the hard-working poor, while the top hat represented the rich. The cannon and battleship were just re-used from another Parker board game called Conflict.
The rarest Monopoly tokens are those made from compressed paper and sawdust during the Second World War. These were so fragile that they often broke, and so complete ones are sought after by collectors. Other tokens aren’t worth a lot because Monopoly was so popular, though some of the original designs may be slightly harder to find.
On their own, Monopoly tokens aren’t worth much money. Even a complete board game with all tokens from decades ago is only worth a few hundred dollars, and that’s if it’s in excellent condition. Compressed paper and sawdust tokens from the 1940s, however, are rare and valuable.
Most Monopoly tokens are made from pewter – a metal alloy that consists of tin, antimony, copper, bismuth, and may contain some silver. Some modern versions of Monopoly use molded plastic instead, while wartime Monopoly tokens were sometimes made from wood or compressed paper.
There is no best Monopoly piece – it depends on your preference. No pieces have a specific advantage apart from some with special powers in themed Monopoly games. The most recent Monopoly World Champion, Nicolo Falcone, used the race car in his 2015 final.
The Monopoly thimble was retired in 2017 after coming bottom in a fan vote. It was one of three pieces retired at the time, replaced by the t-rex, the rubber ducky, and the penguin. In 2022, the thimble returned, taking the place of the t-rex.
The Monopoly iron was retired in 2013 and replaced by the cat token. The cat won more votes than the other proposed new tokens – the guitar, toy robot, diamond ring, and helicopter.
There is now a duck in Monopoly. The ‘rubber ducky’ was one of three tokens chosen to add to the game in the 2017 vote held by Hasbro. The duck is the fourth animal token to have been introduced to Monopoly, following the Scottish terrier and the horse with rider (both 1940s), and the cat (2013).
There was no thimble in Monopoly between 2017 and 2022. The thimble was removed when Hasbro held a vote on which tokens people wanted to keep and add to the game. The thimble, despite being one of the original pieces, came bottom in the results. But, it came back in 2022 after another public vote.
It’s hard to determine the most popular of all Monopoly pieces because the game is played across the world by millions, although according to various surveys carried out the race car and the Scottie dog are two of the most popular.
The Bottom Line
Despite having been a popular board game for almost a century, some of the very first Monopoly tokens introduced have endured. Over time they’ve been added to as the roster has expanded, and some classics have been retired.
There’s now a real mix between the classic Monopoly pieces and much more modern options.
Of course, you can always buy a special edition set if you want some more unique tokens themed to your interests, or shop around for an older set if you want to relive some of the tokens of years gone by. Just be aware that a lot of older Monopoly sets aren’t actually worth as much as you might think they are.
A lot of people have a favorite token and will argue until they’re blue in the face if someone tries to take it for a game. Others aren’t as fussed, and will happily pick up any of them to play a game. Which camp are you in?
