92-Year-Old Iowa Woman Reunites With ‘World’s Oldest Egg’ She Signed 72 Years Ago

What is believed to be one of the oldest eggs in the world rests on a kitchen shelf.

John Amalfitano is the current owner of a 72-year-old egg and has kept it in egg-cellent condition.

The egg is signed with the date April 2, 1951 by “Miss Mary Foss Forest City, Iowa” with a message reading “whoever gets this egg please write me.” 

Amalfitano took to Facebook to track down the person who wrote on the egg all those years ago. “Here’s something you don’t see everyday. It's an egg, from 1951. I’m guessing… from a young, Iowa egg farm worker, who dreamed of making exciting friends in faraway cities,” Amalfitano wrote in a post. “Wonder if she might still be alive!”

Mary Foss, now Mary Starn, was a teenage farm girl when she wrote on the egg, hoping to find a pen pal. At 92 years old, she is amazed her egg still lives on. “That’s something,” Starn tells Inside Edition.

Starn says she packed the signed egg in a carton with 11 other eggs. Then it was put on a truck to New York City where it was apparently purchased at a grocery store. 

Struck by the inscription, the guy who bought the eggs never ate it. He saved it for almost five decades until he gifted it to his friend, Amalfitano.

The Department of Agriculture says eggs can spend between three to five weeks in the refrigerator and still be safe to eat. 

Relates Stories