# Most counted object in the world
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 19, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786 "2011-09-19T03:24:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/1 "2011-09-19T03:24:38Z")
Fisher Flour has had scone stands at the Western Washington Fair for decades. They announced last week that they had sold their 100 millionth scone. I sure that at some point over the years someone accidentally put 14 scones into a baker’s dozen bag. Mistakes happen; you couldn’t definitively point to number 100,000,000. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were pretty close.
Which got me wondering, what is the most counted object in the world? I’m talking individual objects, so the value of currency printed by the U.S. Mint doesn’t count, but the number of bills of any particular denomination would.
I don’t know that we’d ever find a certain answer for this, but can anyone suggest any possible answers?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/2 "2011-09-19T03:28:21Z")
McDonald’s hamburgers?
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/3 "2011-09-19T03:29:17Z")
Light years.
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### Author:  [@spenczar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spenczar)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/4 "2011-09-19T03:36:40Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Light years.
No, wait, _centi_ light years!
No, wait!
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/5 "2011-09-19T03:40:23Z")
> [@runner pat](#):
>
> McDonald’s hamburgers?
That’s possible. Are they still counting, and are the “billions and billions served” all just hamburgers?
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Light years.
Doesn’t count; not a physical object.
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### Author:  [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/6 "2011-09-19T03:44:18Z")
Also, distance isn’t countable. I think we’ll have to rule out continuous quantities, but that breaks down at some point. Mass isn’t countable in any everyday sense, but ultimately you can only divide it into a countable number of atoms…
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/7 "2011-09-19T03:45:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> That’s possible. Are they still counting, and are the “billions and billions served” all just hamburgers?
[According to this](http://overhowmanybillionserved.blogspot.com/), they stopped in 1994. Didn’t know that. Changed the signs to “Billions and Billions Served”.
> [@](#):
>
> April 15, 1994- 100 Billion (McDonald’s executives announce at the annual owner operator convention that they will stop counting hamburgers served because the count has surpassed the 99 Billion Hamburger mark so all the operators should change their signs to say “BILLIONS AND BILLIONS SERVED” and the signs have remained that way since.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/8 "2011-09-19T03:54:43Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#):
>
> Also, distance isn’t countable. I think we’ll have to rule out continuous quantities, but that breaks down at some point. Mass isn’t countable in any everyday sense, but ultimately you can only divide it into a countable number of atoms…
To some degree of certainty, we know how many atoms are in a given mass of material. But that number is derived mathematically. Even if we have the technology to count them as distinct objects, that hasn’t been done as far as I know.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/9 "2011-09-19T03:57:47Z")
Votes? In a typical U.S. Election , well over a hundred million are tallied. An Indian election can top 700 million.
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/10 "2011-09-19T04:01:27Z")
Steps? I may be a little OCD but i count steps almost every time I go up a flight of stairs, even if I climbed them a thousand times before. I don’t normally count them on the way down.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/11 "2011-09-19T04:04:22Z")
Anybody’s right thumb.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/12 "2011-09-19T04:08:53Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Votes? In a typical U.S. Election , well over a hundred million are tallied. An Indian election can top 700 million.
Hmm, that’s an interesting idea. But a “vote” isn’t necessarily the same object from one jurisdiction to another, or may not be a physical object at all. My area used to vote by machine; I assume it just kept some mechanical count and those numbers were added up at the end of the day.
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Anybody’s right thumb.
I don’t know about you, but I only have one.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/13 "2011-09-19T04:15:19Z")
But how often does it get counted?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/14 "2011-09-19T04:22:24Z")
According to [this site](http://www.mountainviewcoins.com/mintage-US-coins/mintage-US-coins-lincoln-cents.php), there have been 455,627,740,918 Lincoln Cents minted since 1909.
How about coins from other countries?
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/15 "2011-09-19T04:50:58Z")
Do the number of decimals in pi count?
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/16 "2011-09-19T04:54:18Z")
Sheep?
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/17 "2011-09-19T04:59:37Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> According to [this site](http://www.mountainviewcoins.com/mintage-US-coins/mintage-US-coins-lincoln-cents.php), there have been 455,627,740,918 Lincoln Cents minted since 1909.
Okay, that’s definitely a contender.
I assume even the Mint can’t count to 455 billion without a mistake or two along the way; I wonder how close to the real number that is.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/18 "2011-09-19T05:24:24Z")
How many people have been reading this thread with a little voice in their head going “\*one, ah ah ahhh… two, ah ah ahhh… \*”?
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/19 "2011-09-19T05:30:20Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> How many people have been reading this thread with a little voice in their head going “\*one, ah ah ahhh… two, ah ah ahhh… \*”?
You forgot the flashes of lightning and thunder. Every. Damn. Time.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counted-object-in-the-world/596786/20 "2011-09-19T06:10:18Z")
Bullets. Armies like to keep track of those - I bet you could find a count of every round of ammo purchased by the U.S. military in the 20th century, and that’s just one country.
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