Dear WW: the bakers certainly did not like the number thirteen, but there was a savage
penalty for only putting eleven in the bag and calling it twelve.I searched for history, and
found this:
"This expression meaning thirteen of something, is many centuries old. It goes back to the
days when bread was the staple diet of the populace and it was illegal to sell it underweight.
In order to make certain that they did not incur a heavy penalty for selling underweight, many
bakers gave 13 loaves to the dozen, just to make sure. This extra loaf was called the
"vantage" loaf.
I never heard the word "vantage" used that way before.