I’ve wondered this so many times as I’m opening my egg cartons at the store to inspect the contents for breaks or cracks. Why 12? Why not 10? Seems like a number that makes more sense. Why not 15 or 20? Who exactly decided that 12 was the magical egg number?
Well I did a little research to find out and I was a little surprised by the answer. We here in the US weren’t the ones that started it. It actually originated in England. Way back when, the Imperial Unit System was used. In this system, there were twelve pennies to a shilling. Because of this, farmers and bakers sold their goods in dozens. When people went to market they could buy one egg {or roll, etc.} for a penny, or buy a dozen for a shilling. This kept people from having to make change so everyone stuck to the practice of selling in groups of 12 to make things easier.
Years later, even after the Imperial Unit System was abandoned, the practice stuck even though there was not really a necessity for it anymore. You know that old habits die hard! So when the settlers came over to make their homes in North America, they brought the same practice with them and eggs continued to be sold in dozens to this day. And now you know!
~Mavis
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Lisa says
I applied for a job once where I had to take a technical aptitude test. One of the sets of questions was assuming a base 12 system instead of base 10. Interesting exercise.
Colleen says
There is still the endless question of why hot dogs are sold in packs of 10 generally, but buns are sold in packs of 8.
IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE!
Mavis says
No sense! Makes me crazy!!
Dale says
Cool fact, As for the hotdogs and buns I think that has to do with marketing. If you buy a $5.00 pack of 10 hotdogs we can get you to buy 2 $1.50 packs of 8 buns.
Chrystal says
Or just give the extra two hotdogs to the dog….
Kristina says
England (UK) has gone metric, but we still use the Imperial measuring system — inches, feet (12 inches), yards, miles, fahrenheit. Are we the only developed nation not using metric measurements? Sure makes the math harder when you double a recipe.
Kat says
Nearly! The *only* other countries on the planet that still use the outdated and computationally-difficult Imperial System are Liberia and Myanmar…. I guess that shows where we are progress-wise.
Lisa L says
I guess that’s why donuts are typically sold by the dozen too (you mentioned bakers). Fascinating.
Lana says
Our daughter lived in China for a year and eggs are sold like produce there. There is a display with a huge pile of eggs and you pick out the ones you want and put them in a plastic bag and pay per piece. BTW- milk is sold in bulk and you get that in a plastic bag, too. It still boggles my mind.
Our county has recently stopped recycling glass, too but our plastics have hugely increases from just 1 and 2 to most plastics so I guess it is a trade off. I see jars in thrift stores here all the time so I guess I will wash them and donate them.
Becka says
We taught in China for a time and where we lived the eggs were sold by weight. They weighed the plastic bag full of the eggs you had chosen and a little sticker printed out with the price.
Mavis says
That is wild! I’ve never heard of that in all my travels.