Beale cipher

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The Beale cipher is an encrypted message. It describes the way to a gold treasure, which a certain Thomas J. Beale is said to have hidden in the years 1820/22. The second page of the Beale cipher could be deciphered using the American Declaration of Independence . The numbers represent the first letters of the nth words in the original text. The first and third ciphers have not yet been deciphered.

history

Cover of the Beale Papers

In 1885 a pamphlet ( The Beale Papers ) was published by the American publisher James Ward, according to which a hotel owner in Lynchburg , Virginia named Robert Morriss von Beale left a locked box of "papers of great value" when he left after his second stay at the hotel in 1822. was entrusted, which he should keep carefully. A few months later, Morriss received a letter from Beale in St. Louis instructing him to keep the box for ten years and, if no one asked for it to be returned, to open the box and use the key he gave to open the paperwork should be received in June 1832 to decipher.

Beale never returned to the hotel and Morriss did not receive the promised key either. However, he waited until 1845 to break the lock on the box containing the three sheets of paper with the ciphers and a note. The note told of how Beale and several other men found and hid a large amount of gold. Morriss assumed that the men were dead and felt obliged to distribute the treasure to the relatives of the men who are said to be listed in the third cipher. The second cipher describes the treasure and the first the location of the hiding place. Without the key, Morriss could not decrypt the three ciphers, so he tried to crack the ciphers on his own, which ultimately failed. Before his death in 1862, he confided in a friend whose identity is not known. This finally managed to decipher the second cipher after many years, but also failed because of the others and therefore decided in 1885 to publish the whole story.

However, it is not clear whether the Beale ciphers are a prank. The writer of the book, allegedly Morriss' friend, could have just made up the whole story. In the summary of the analytical considerations presented by Klaus Schmeh , the intellectual level of knowledge and the quality of the encryption technology correspond more to the state of time around 1885 than to that of the letters of the alleged buffalo hunter Beale, which makes a hoax seem very likely.

The cipher

page 1 Page 2 Page 3

The second Beale cipher (decrypted)

I HAVE DEPOSITED IN THE COUNTY OF BEDFORD ABOUT FOUR MILES FROM BUFORDS IN AN EXCAVATION OR VAULT SIX FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE GROUND THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES BELONGING JOINTLY TO THE PARTIES WHOSE NAMES ARE GIVEN IN NUMBER THREE HEREWITH.

THE FIRST DEPOSIT CONSISTED OF TEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN POUNDS (1014 lbs.) OF GOLD AND THIRTY EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWELVE POUNDS (3812 lbs.) OF SILVER, DEPOSITED NOV. EIGHTEEN NINETEEN. (NOV. 1819)

THE SECOND WAS MADE DEC. EIGHTEEN TWENTY-ONE (DEC 1821) AND CONSISTED OF NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN POUNDS OF GOLD AND TWELVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT OF SILVER; SO JEWELS OBTAINED IN ST. LOUIS IN EXCHANGE TO SAVE TRANSPORTATION, AND VALUED AT THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

THE ABOVE IS SECURELY PACKED IN IRON POTS WITH IRON COVERS. THE VAULT IS ROUGHLY LINED WITH STONE, AND THE VESSELS REST ON SOLID STONE, AND ARE COVERED WITH OTHERS.

PAPER NUMBER ONE DESCRIBES THE EXACT LOCALITY OF THE VAULT, SO THAT NO DIFFICULTY WILL BE HAD IN FINDING IT.

German translation of the second Beale cipher

In Bedford County , about four miles from Buford, in a cave two meters below the surface of the earth, I have deposited the following objects, which belong to those persons named in number three:

The first depository consists of 1,014 pounds of gold and 3,812 pounds of silver, stored in November 1819. The second depository was opened in December 1821 and consists of 1,907 pounds of gold and 1,280 pounds of silver; also jewels acquired in St. Louis in exchange for silver to facilitate transportation and valued at $ 13,000.

The above is safely packed in iron vessels with iron lids. The cavity is roughly covered with stones and the vessels rest on and are covered with hard rock. Paper number one describes the exact location of the cavity so it shouldn't be difficult to find.

See also

literature

Web links

Wikisource: The Beale Papers  - Sources and full texts (English)