Monopoly Game Piece Vote: Fans Take to Facebook, Twitter To Kill an Icon

At the start every Monopoly game, players fight over which token they will be — the battle ship, top hat, Scottie dog, or one of five others. Now boardgame fans are fighting about which game piece to save, which one becomes history, and what becomes a new instant icon. America’s most beloved game is changing.

Hasbro, the company that owns the board game, has asked fans to vote on which piece will be replaced by a new token. Fans will have until Feb. 5 to vote on Facebook or Twitter for whether the race car, iron, wheelbarrow, thimble, shoe, or one of the other three will have a last lap around the square board.

More than 262,000 votes had been tallied as of Wednesday morning.

Options for the replacement token include a diamond ring, toy robot, cat, guitar, or helicopter.

Fans of the iconic 77-year-old game can vote on the official Facebook page or by using the hashtag #tokenvote on Twitter.

Monopoly, which is available in 111 countries and 43 different languages and has been played by more than a billion people, made the announcement via Facebook to more than 10 million people who “Liked” the page.

"It's the trial of the century! The fate of every classic MONOPOLY token rests in your hands. Vote daily to save your favorite token from a life sentence off the board," the post says.

Users have been vocal. The announcement garnered nearly 3,000 Likes, more than 700 comments, and more than 400 shares.

After the votes are counted, Hasbro said the current version of Monopoly will be discontinued, and the version with the new token will come out later in 2013. A special edition of the game will also be available, with all the old and new tokens in a gold-colored box.

Monopoly was invented in the 1903 by Elizabeth Magie, though the version we know today that gained global popularity was patented by Charles Darrow 77 years ago, according to Mashable.

According to Parker Brothers, Darrow's nieces originally suggested using charm bracelet charms as game pieces, thus the tokens were born. Six of the tokens were released in 1935, when Parker Brothers licensed the company, while the Scottie and wheelbarrow were released in the early 1950s. The lineup hasn't changed since.