A new Monopoly token for the 2013 version of the popular board game was announced: a cat. The cat game piece token will replace the retired iron token. The new Monopoly token was chosen by public vote.

The cat token was the winner of a worldwide vote for a new token in the classic Hasbro board game, Monopoly, ABC News reports. According to The Christian Science Monitor, voters hailed from 120 countries. The cat beat out a guitar, robot, helicopter and diamond ring to get a chance to race around Atlantic City on the board.

The cat token measures about a half inch wide and a half inch long, with a cat face, tail, collar, and four legs, IB Times reports..

The Monopoly game tokens now include a dog and a cat, America's most popular house pets.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that, according to Humane Society statistics, US pet ownership demographics reveal that approximately 86.4 million cats are kept as pets in the United States, with 33 percent of households owning at least one cat. A higher percentage of households keep dogs, at 39 percent. But there are fewer owned dogs - 78.2 million. The majority of cat owners, 52 percent, own more than one cat, the website notes.

Monopoly has been retiring and adding game pieces since its launch in the mid-1930s by Parker Brothers, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

The Monopoly pieces were originally made by companies who also made charm bracelets, and many of the original tokens were popular charm pieces as well.

Discontinued pieces from the original version include a lantern, purse, and a rocking horse. Others, including a cannon, a man on a horse, and a sack of money, have come and gone, The Monitor reports.

In 1935, Monopoly offered a variety of tokens like the iron, top hat, thimble, shoe, race car and battleship, IB Times reports. In the 1950s, it was followed by more tokens like the wheelbarrow and the dog. Other tokens that can be noted include sack of money and cannon in 1999 but took a halt in 2007.