![]() ![]() Later that same year, a battleship and cannon were added to raise the number of tokens to ten.Īll was quiet on the token front until 1942 when metal shortages during World War II resulted in a comeback of wooden tokens. The first significant development in customizing the playing pieces came in 1937, when Parker Brothers introduced these die-cast metal tokens: a car, flatiron, lantern, thimble, shoe, top hat, and rocking horse. Soon thereafter, in the 1935-36 sets, Parker Brothers included wooden player pieces shaped like chess pawns… boring. While the early history is contentious, on one thing all Monopoly historians can agree- when Parker Brothers introduced the game in 1935, Monopoly had no player pieces and the rules instructed the players to use such items as buttons or pennies as player markers. After Darrow self-published the game to great success, Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly in 1934. The history of Monopoly is fraught with controversy and contention, for it seems that its inventor, Charles Darrow, at the very least borrowed liberally from two already existing games when he first marketed Monopoly in the early 1930s. And don’t forget the wheelbarrow, which you’ll need to carry all that cash you are going to appropriate from your hapless opponents. I don’t think I need one more, even if it has an air of Monopoly about it.What do a thimble, a sack of money, a battleship, and a top hat have in common? Not much, other than that they are among the eleven playing tokens you receive in a standard Monopoly set. But where to put it? It screams doorstop to me, but when I went in search of a place, I found not one, not two, but THREE old 19th century irons propped up against doors on my third floor. Since I’m particularly fond of the retired iron, I did find a more attainable object: a pewteresque replica: not very subtle, and far less artistic, but BIG. Stuart Whitton’s drawings of “infamous” Monopoly pieces at Behance and stuartwhitton. I want all of these creations by Stuart Whitton, which are hand-drawn on vintage postcards, but I think they’re long gone. And when a little tiny metal token just won’t do, several artists have been inspired enough by the game–and its iconic pieces–to create bigger and bolder versions. I’m a cat lover as well, but the new token just doesn’t have the texture of that old iron: thankfully my Monopoly game is pretty vintage, and thus iron-clad. Inside are wooden houses and hotels and the original dark-iron tokens: the iron, racing car, thimble, shoe, top hat and battleship (the Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s).ġ935 Patent Pending Monopoly Box: Source.Īnd that’s the other reason why I’m craving Monopoly pieces now: my favorite token was always the iron, and it has recently been cast out of the game, replaced by a cat. ![]() It was apparently rushed into production even though Parker Brothers president George Parker had low expectations: a series of boxes from 1935 bear the inscriptions “patent applied for” and “patent pending”. Parker Brothers’ long residency in Salem (1883-1991) is no doubt due in large part to the success of this ultra-American game. There is a Salem source of this desire, and it is a timely one: Parker Brothers of Salem acquired one of the key patents they needed to produce their version of Monopoly on this day in 1935, and it was an immediate blockbuster, perhaps (or in spite of) the ongoing Depression. I have quicksilver materialistic urges: what I want now are Monopoly pieces, or rather artistically-enhanced versions thereof. ![]()
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