Jack the Ripper's possible secret

[RivkahChaya]

I think the iron got replaced by something dumb looking.

I think it got replaced by a cat. About time, too.

The original Monopoly game didn't come with tokens, and told you just to use things around the house, hence a thimble, a toy car, the cannon and the battleship (from kids tin soldier sets). There was a Scottie dog craze at the time (Fox Terriers, too), so I guess a lot of people had little dog tokens. Charm bracelets were popular, and maybe that accounts for it. The wheelbarrow and iron I assume would come from dollhouses. Maybe the top hat and the shoe as well. Anyway, when Parker Bros. started producing them with tokens, they went with distinctive items, instead of doing what other board games were doing, and painting chess pawns different colors. I guess a lot of games didn't come with tokens, and what people did was just use chess pawns, and make marks, or tie strings on them, rather than actually gather up a whimsical set of toys that were the right size.

If I had to guess, I'd say that a lot of early Monopoly games got played with chess pieces more often than toy battleships, but that wouldn't be as interesting.

Have I missed all the posts where people tried to make Zodiac signs out of the locations? I'd think that'd be right up Conspiracy Alley.