Party Trivia: What’s the significance of Monopoly playing pieces?

10/27/2009

The first game, produced during the Depression in 1935, did not include tokens.  Its designer, Charles Darrow intended that players use regular household items such as buttons and pennies. Parker Brothers decided to introduce four small wax wood playing pieces, moving towards die-cast metal tokens representative of households across America – a flatiron, purse, lantern, rocking horse, thimble, shoe, and (Mr. Monopoly’s) top hat and car.  A battleship and cannon were introduced in 1937 to mirror another Parker Brothers game called Conflict.  During WWII, metal was in short supply in the U.S. so tokens were made out of wood.  During the early 1950s, three tokens were retired (the lantern, purse, and horse) to be replaced by Mr. Monopoly’s dog, a wheelbarrow, and rider.