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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[Blak bart]

Well I'm here to say there ain't no scam !! Because after commenting on this thread way back when.....well I dug my own half bar !! It was buried deep, and was encrusted with corrosion, sand, and coral !!

A LINGO BAR !! Whatever they are !! No one seems to know so im sticking with my original post from way back when....I think there related to boat building and are muntz metal !! Who knows !! Thats a guess here it is before and after cleaning.

I thought it was a silver ingot before I cleaned it !!

 

[Retired Sarge]

Well I'm here to say there ain't no scam !! Because after commenting on this thread way back when.....well I dug my own half bar !! It was buried deep, and was encrusted with corrosion, sand, and coral !!

A LINGO BAR !! Whatever they are !! No one seems to know so im sticking with my original post from way back when....I think there related to boat building and are muntz metal !! Who knows !! Thats a guess here it is before and after cleaning.
View attachment 2056089 View attachment 2056090 View attachment 2056091 View attachment 2056092 View attachment 2056093 View attachment 2056094 View attachment 2056095 View attachment 2056096 View attachment 2056097 View attachment 2056098
I thought it was a silver ingot before I cleaned it !!

So something thought to be a possible scam, is in reality an unidentified item. Who would have ever thought that, not me that is for sure.

 

[Blak bart]

Well what the heck.....no one can figure this out ? All this time and still no answer ?? How can it be that the only place on the internet that has info on these bars is this thread ?? All these people have one and no one knows what they are....they were made for something ??

Mines been chiseld in half !! And was buried on the beach !!

 

[unclemac]

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

 

[1637]

will someone please get one of these tested!!!
brad

 

[Blak bart]

Looks like yellow metal or muntz metal. 60% copper and 40% zinc with trace iron. Used to sheath the bottoms of sailing ships in the 1800s. Just a guess though ??https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntz_metal

 

[Plug N Play]

Attn. Mods

Not saying this is the case, here. Just want folks to think about how things of this sort might work.

Very often, in any collectable, the "too good to be true" comes from either the scammer or the one who may have already been scammed. The one who has been scammed is looking for answers.

The scammers ... all they want is dialog ... they are looking for that one vulnerable person, who, in a moment of weakness thinks, "What if it's true ?" The one person who will respond OFF THREAD. A personal message or an email, or a phone call, etc. ... it gets handed off to a "handler".

"Gee, grandma, there's been little interest in this ... that's good, it just leaves you and me ... and since I can't deal with it currently ... that leaves you in a wonderful position to reap the riches."

It's not the chat, that they care about ... they just want it to continue. They don't care if it's nae-sayers.
If most chatters are skeptical, no problem ... just keep it going. It's that one person that goes outside the chat that they want. The weak one ... the one cut from the herd.

You'll find the stories are usually lacking ... additional information slyly absent. Until they have you alone. Then everything escalates. The riches compound ... the stories get "fascinating" ... your hopes get elevated.

The front men have no time to keep their stories straight because they are running "dozens" of items a day. Quick answers devoid of anything specific. They get their cut after the handlers bring home the bacon. Keep feeding the handlers, every now and then, one pays off ... the front men get a little of it.

The handlers are good ! They play the weak like a fish. Sometimes the payoffs can be huge for them. Does grandma tell the family she lost everything ? ... heck no ... most of these get lost in the humiliation ether.

TLDR: IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS !
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ... never go off chat on things of this nature. If you do ... be very cautious of ANY escalation. Seek help, seek advice, before doing anything. There are folks who can search the net for you and point things out. There are police, etc ... who have seen it all before. The handlers will try to rush you. There is NO NEED TO RUSH ... ask around, get support, take your time, come back here and ask about things ... THERE IS NO NEED TO RUSH, in spite of what you may be told. Back up, and get lots of advice.

BEST ADVICE: Please do not go off-chat on things of this sort. We have a good community here on tnet ... but, if you leave it, things can go very wrong in a hurry.

Addendum:
However you came across this, sneakysquid, ... if you are concerned, be very skeptical ... get it tested, and don't go further without getting advice from reputable dealers, family, police, etc.

Attn. Mods : Feel free to delete if this is the wrong way ... I'm not sure how to get the word out, but the more folks are aware of this sort of thing, the safer the community will be.

 

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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?