Dave, that very well could be that it had the sign there at one time. That's funny you took a picture of your barrel as I have the same barrel, but I have no where to put it so I cut the top off about an inch or so down, cleaned up the edges a bit and sandblasted it and I'm actually going down to the shop tomorrow to paint it. I'm doing green with the embossed letters in white, and then I can hang it up, yours will look very cool all painted up with a bow-tie decal on it.
Ken