Half a bar of something

[sqeal]

Hey, wondering if someone could help me with this thing. It´s a bar that´s been cut in half. I´d say it weighs about 100 grams.
The inscriptions say: LINGOEIGO (the word gets cut off here), ISCC, 200 (guessing that´s the weight in grams if the thing was whole), GM.

I´ve had it since I was a kid, and always wondered if it could be gold, but it´s definitely too hard to be pure. Anyone recognize the markings?
Btw, the pink color on the front is from a permanent marker.

 

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[mcl]

I can't help but wonder if the first line isn't the description of what the bar is made of and that you unfortunately got only the first part of that. I say that because "LINGO" is the first several letters of the word for "ingot" in various languages, including French ("lingot"), Spanish and Portuguese ("lingote"), and other similar languages.

 

[sqeal]

I can't help but wonder if the first line isn't the description of what the bar is made of and that you unfortunately got only the first part of that. I say that because "LINGO" is the first several letters of the word for "ingot" in various languages, including French ("lingot"), Spanish and Portuguese ("lingote"), and other similar languages.

Oh yeah, cool observation! I´ve tried googling the word and tons of different variations without luck. There is some damage to the "E", but it seems unlikely to be a "T".

 

[mcl]

Oh yeah, cool observation! I´ve tried googling the word and tons of different variations without luck. There is some damage to the "E", but it seems unlikely to be a "T".

Of course -- but don't forget conjugation/contraction/other grammar practices in other languages may result in letters getting dropped, portmanteau type situations, and other things you might not expect. I don't know all of these rules, but I guess what I'm saying is that the dictionary spelling of a word might not be what gets used in common parlance. Also, if the bar was hand-stamped, one letter could have been really light, forgotten completely, etc, or the spacing between letters could obscure the separation between words. "E" could very well be a word on its own, for instance, as it means "and" in Spanish.

Just a thought.

 

[trdking]

E I GO Could be a reference to E.I. DuPont gold standards created to identify loss of precious metals during the purification process or to deliver cost of alloying gold or Silver.
I see it as Ingot E I. Go (LD missing)

I would definitely have it assayed or just do an acid test on it. It looks like a piece of a refiners bar to me.

 

[sqeal]

E I GO Could be a reference to E.I. DuPont gold standards created to identify loss of precious metals during the purification process or to deliver cost of alloying gold or Silver.
I see it as Ingot E I. Go (LD missing)

I would definitely have it assayed or just do an acid test on it. It looks like a piece of a refiners bar to me.

Now that you mention it, there seems to be a punctuation-mark after the "I", thought it was a damage, but it seems like a pretty deliberate mark after a closer look.
I´m pretty blank at this, what is a refiners bar?

 

[mcl]

E I GO Could be a reference to E.I. DuPont gold standards created to identify loss of precious metals during the purification process or to deliver cost of alloying gold or Silver.
I see it as Ingot E I. Go (LD missing)

I would definitely have it assayed or just do an acid test on it. It looks like a piece of a refiners bar to me.

I see Lingos -- the "E" appears to have been stamped over with "S". Compare to the "S" in ISCC in the row below.

 

[sqeal]

I see Lingos -- the "E" appears to have been stamped over with "S". Compare to the "S" in ISCC in the row below.

Yup, you´re right, thought it was damage, but there´s definitely an "S" stamped inside the "E". Sloppy spelling back in the day.

EDIT: It actually looks more like the "S" was misstamped, and the "E" was stamped over it.

 

[sqeal]

A google-search for Lingo Seigo comes out with the first hit at 24hgold.com, so I guess that´s a good sign.

EDIT: That would be Lingo Sigo. Which doesn´t give anything.

 

[The_Piratess]

How did you happen to come across that as a kid? Enquiring minds would like to know...

 

[sqeal]

How did you happen to come across that as a kid? Enquiring minds would like to know...

Well, enquiring minds should be informed. I found it in the attic where I grew up, it intrigued me, so I held on to it. It was used as a toy, hence the pink permanent marker. I have no idea where it came from, but my best guess is that my great-grandfather brought it from America early in the 1900s. I live in Norway, and pretty much everyone went to America to try their luck at that time. Maybe he hid this thing in the attic and forgot about it

 

[trdking]

Refiners purify gold or strengthen gold with alloys. Way back in the grandfathers day a private customer could take gold in for refining or fortification. It would be stamped similar to this identifying the customer the weight and the the purity or loss in refining. I do the same thing today with large quantities of product contain precious metal. They refine it and Pay me for the recovery as I don't want 50 oz of gold delivered to me. If I did I would receive refiner bars.

 

[sqeal]

Refiners purify gold or strengthen gold with alloys. Way back in the grandfathers day a private customer could take gold in for refining or fortification. It would be stamped similar to this identifying the customer the weight and the the purity or loss in refining. I do the same thing today with large quantities of product contain precious metal. They refine it and Pay me for the recovery as I don't want 50 oz of gold delivered to me. If I did I would receive refiner bars.

That´s really interesting, thanks for you knowledge. So this might actually be a lump of fortified gold-alloy?

 

[4x4x4]

........and , Welcome to these hallowed halls of Treasurenet from California !

 

[trdking]

That´s really interesting, thanks for you knowledge. So this might actually be a lump of fortified gold-alloy?

Your pictures are not very good. It is very hard to determine the true color to make any determination of what it is. It is an alloy of something. If it is gold color when you are holding it in your hand , it is very likely I would say.

 

[sqeal]

Some more pics.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Gold and copper?

 

[unclemac]

easy to find out...take it to a jeweler, they will tell you in seconds what it is NOT.

 

[tamrock]

That looks like gold. When I was kid my friend took me to his grandad's house. His granddad brought out and showed us his cool stuff. One item was a WW1 German helmet he said he took off a dead German and the other was a heavy little gold bar that I can still recall the weight to size ratio as it was very heavy for the size of it. I also remember the story he said about why he has it. He said he hid it away when FDR took us off the gold standard and he decided he was gonna keep the bar. It looked very much like what you have if memory serves me. That would have been over 50 years now since I saw that gold bar.

 

[trdking]

TO me, It appears to be too light for its mass to be pure gold and the color is off. Could have some gold in it. Have it tested and let us know what it is?

Cheers