# Spyco Smelting and Refining?



## mbj0213 (May 11, 2012)

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what I have. My father was a dentist and he had a box of dental gold. In addition to the dental gold there are various other gold odds and ends. There are also 7 small blue and white envelopes - obviously pretty dated since the info on them was typed with an old typewriter. The envelope is printed with Spyco Smelting & Refining Co. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The rest of it says 
GOLD PLATE light
22K. 30GA. 3DWT.
On the back of each envelope the # 1114850 is hand typed.
Inside is a gold bar maybe 3 inches long and a little over a half inch wide. Weighs maybe an ounce (on a postal scale). It has no magnetic properties. All the info I can find online regarding Spyco dates back to the 50's and earlier.

I know I can take it to a gold dealer and have it tested but I'd like an idea if it's worth the trouble first. 

Anyone have a clue exactly what it is? Thanks in advance for any help!


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## butcher (May 11, 2012)

The package and the item may or may not be related, since the package says gold plate, you can check to see if it is, you could file into the bar and add a drop of nitric acid, see if you get a reaction to the nitric acid, green is copper, gold will not react to copper, a gold buyer would test it for you if you do not have nitric acid.


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## Harold_V (May 12, 2012)

mbj0213 said:


> GOLD PLATE light


That designation my relate to the fact that the plate is thin (light). That it also mentions 30 GA. leads me to think that's true. 


> 22K.


Purity of the alloy, in reference to gold. In other words, it's 91.666% gold.



> 3DWT.


Three pennyweight (dwt). How much it weighs. 3/20 of a troy ounce.

The piece in question may or may not belong in that container. If you have more than one, and they all are similar or identical, pretty good chance it belongs there. Now you have to determine if the weight matches the description. You're a long ways off on an avoirdupois ounce if it really weighs three dwt. (that's only .165 oz. av.)

Harold


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## mbj0213 (May 12, 2012)

Harold_V said:


> mbj0213 said:
> 
> 
> > GOLD PLATE light
> ...



Thanks so much for the responses! No nitric acid laying about the house I'm afraid. I was thinking abt the weight not seeming right. It's a digital scale and measures ozs and grs. My son had weighed it and said it was "abt an ounce". I should have known better. I reweighed it myself and get 0.14oz or 4g. I weighed 2 of them and both are exactly the same. All 7 are exactly alike as are the envelopes. There's no doubt in my mind they belong in the envelopes - some are still sealed. The plates are very thin and each one was wrapped in tissue before being placed in the envelope.

The envelope also has what must have been the company slogan printed on it.."Dependable as the plumb line". Plumb refers to purity in gold- right?

I think those are all the clues I can come up with. Thanks again for the help!


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## glondor (May 12, 2012)

Treasure! I love stories of unusual finds.


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## goldsilverpro (May 12, 2012)

glondor said:


> Treasure! I love stories of unusual finds.



I agree. For years, I've thought about asking Noxx to add a new forum category called "Stories." I've got a jillion PM or other metal related stories and I like telling them. Things like characters I have met, chemical mishaps, eureka moments, times I have been screwed, etc., etc., etc. Everybody has stories. I think the category should be restricted to forum type stuff, though. Other stories can still go in Bar & Grill.


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## publius (May 13, 2012)

mbj0213 said:


> Snip...
> 
> The envelope also has what must have been the company slogan printed on it.."Dependable as the plumb line". Plumb refers to purity in gold- right?
> 
> Snip.



Plumb is a term in building trades related to being vertical. As is the term "level" being related to being horizontal. In this case a weight (brass is used today but lead [Latin word for lead is plumbum] was used in early history, hence the term "plumb") at the end of a string is used to reference vertical and could be relied on to always give that relationship to earths gravitational pull.

Related phrase would be "on the level."

[on topic] Great find and thank you for asking the question. The answers have added to the knowledge base here!

Robert Jeffery, CWI


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## its-all-a-lie (May 13, 2012)

Plumb is also a term used to defing Karat jewelry as being exactly as it is hallmarked, ex. 14k Plumb means it is a full 58.38% gold content. If it is not "Plumb" it can be as low as 56.295% if my math is correct and possibly lower.


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## qst42know (May 13, 2012)

mbj0213 said:


> Hi,
> I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what I have. My father was a dentist and he had a box of dental gold. In addition to the dental gold there are various other gold odds and ends. There are also 7 small blue and white envelopes - obviously pretty dated since the info on them was typed with an old typewriter. The envelope is printed with Spyco Smelting & Refining Co. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
> The rest of it says
> GOLD PLATE light
> ...




If you read the references at the end of this article, Spyco did provide dental alloys.

http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/30/5/745.extract


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## g_axelsson (Jun 21, 2013)

goldsilverpro said:


> glondor said:
> 
> 
> > Treasure! I love stories of unusual finds.
> ...



Go on, ask him. I would love to hear your refining stories.



Göran


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## GOLDbuyerCA (Jun 21, 2013)

*NO only can i tell Stories i can tell WOPPERS* i like good gold stories, prospecting in Beautiful British Columbia n also, scrap finding stories, bring them on please /


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