SEOUL, Dec 19 — A 20-year-old air conditioner has unexpectedly become one of South Korea’s most talked-about vintage items after a viral video revealed that its logo was made of pure gold, sparking a nationwide hunt through homes, storerooms and scrap piles.

The YouTube clip, titled “Is there gold in air conditioners?”, shows a Seoul-based gold shop owner known as Ringring Unnie examining a bundle of battered metal letters brought in by a customer. Holding up the pieces, she asks: “What is this?”

“It was removed from an LG Whisen air conditioner. It was the logo attached to the front of the air conditioner,” the customer replies. 

“The delivery person said it was gold, and the advertisement also mentioned it was gold. At the time, they said: ‘If you take this off, we’ll give you 10,000 won.’”

The video then cuts to the shop owner melting down the six letters into a small gold nugget. After testing it, she phones the customer with the result.

“It wasn’t 18-carat — it was pure gold. The weight is slightly less than one don, so I’ll give you 713,000 won (RM2,000),” she says.

A don, the traditional unit used to measure gold in South Korea, is equivalent to 3.75 grams and is worth about 890,000 won, according to The Korea Herald. 

Since the video was uploaded last Thursday, it has drawn more than one million views and nearly 200 comments, with many viewers saying it had prompted them to check old appliances at home.

“My grandmother’s air conditioner is really old — I should check whether it’s Samsung or LG,” one social media user wrote. 

Others expressed regret at having discarded similar logos years earlier without realising their potential value.

The frenzy continued with a follow-up video posted on Tuesday, in which another customer arrived clutching a Whisen logo after watching the viral clip.

“I once removed this logo and took it to a local gold exchange, but they said, ‘There’s no certificate, and it doesn’t seem like gold,’” the customer told the YouTuber. 

“I was about to throw it away when I saw the video.”

Because the letters were in better condition, the second appraisal came in higher, at 748,000 won.

The excitement, however, was quickly tempered. The Chosun Daily reported that the gold logos appeared only on specific LG models, not across the company’s entire range.

According to The Korea Herald, LG — then known as Lucky-Goldstar — produced 10,000 limited-edition Whisen air conditioners in 2005 to celebrate its fifth consecutive year as South Korea’s top air-conditioner seller, each featuring a 24-carat gold logo. 

The company repeated the idea in 2008, releasing models with one-don pure gold nameplates engraved with an artist’s signature.

At the time, gold prices were far lower. In 2005, gold traded at between 50,000 and 70,000 won, according to The Korea Times. Two decades later, prices have climbed to roughly 10 times that amount.

As one social media user put it: “LG basically helped customers invest without them realising it.”