Facebook voters decide to drop Monopoly’s iron token in favour of a cat

When a family dusts off their Monopoly board game for an evening of fun, the first argument of the game will be who gets to be which token. Now, after a Facebook vote, a new token has entered the mix – but it also means waving goodbye to an old classic.

Over the course of a month, Monopoly fans were allowed to vote on which classic token to save and which new token to introduce via a Facebook app. According to Life Inc., domestic gods and goddesses will mourn the loss of the iron token, which will now go directly to jail and never pass ‘Go’ again.

It was looking like a close call between the boot, iron and wheelbarrow for the chopping block, but in the end it was the iron that burned out. The iron token was first introduced in 1935, but it now joins the lantern, purse and rocking horse as a retired piece.

About 250,000 votes were also cast to select a new token to replace the now-defunct iron. Facebook users could have picked a robot, diamond ring, helicopter or a guitar but – as is a common trend among the internet community – a love of cats prevailed and a metal kitty has now been added to the board game.

So, cats are in, irons are out. But die-hard iron fans can still pick up a current edition of the board game with their favourite token still in place. Act fast – they may become collectors’ items!