Strangest World Surprises You Won’t Believe Are Real

The carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua, St. John's Bread, or locust tree grows in the Mediterranean and has fruit pods that contain multiple seeds. It was a simple task to get your hand on a bunch of carob seeds of the same size, and count on them all to be pretty much the same weight. Or, at least, it was perceived so. The weight of an object was then expressed in terms of the equivalent number of carob seeds. This was standard for commerce and it was even used to weigh things like gemstones and gold.