Small Gross (sm gr)

Medieval EnglishTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Ten dozen, 120 items, also called the long hundred. A medieval English counting unit for goods.

1 small gross = 120 pieces (exactly).

About the small gross

The small gross is 120, ten dozen, and it has more names than uses: great hundred, long hundred, and small gross all point to it. Behind it lies a habit of mixing twelves and tens. In Iceland and Scandinavia a hundred made of ten twelves had its own name, tolfrátt hundrað, to tell it apart from an ordinary hundred of ten tens. In Old Norse counting, the same system made a thousand equal to 1,200.

In England the long hundred was common in trade, and a proverb contrasted five score, meaning 100, for men, money, or pins with six score, meaning 120, for other goods. Nails were often sold by it. Around 1300 the Assize of Weights and Measures recorded a hundred kippers as 120 fish and a hundred ells of linen as 120 ells. The usage faded as Arabic numerals, which assume base 10, spread from the 14th century. Against familiar units, 120 is 10 dozen and five sixths of a gross.

Sources: World Wide Words: Tolfraedic (long hundred); Wikipedia: Long hundred; Wikipedia: Dozen

Small Gross conversion chart

1 small gross expressed in every other counting & quantity unit:

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