For many, the words code and cipher often induce the same thought. However, there is a difference between the two words. And even though code and cipher get interchanged a lot, even by myself, the actual definitions for the words establishes there should be a precise usage and understanding for …
The Bacon’s Cipher, or rather method of stenography, dates back to 1605, and was developed by Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon was an English Philosopher, Author, and Statesman, who was agent for Queen Elizabeth, and later King James. His many studies and works helped advance the sciences. Stenography conceals a message …
One of the first armchair hunts my family and I worked on used the Polybius Square as its method of encoding. It was the 2004 Armchair Treasure Hunt entitled A Treasure’s Trove. The Polybius Square, in its most commonly used form, is a 5×5 grid filled with the alphabet. The …
The Pigpen Cipher is a simple substitution cipher. Each letter is replaced by another symbol by using fragments of a grid as a key. Although there are different geometric formats and arrangements for the key to be made, the following shows one example of a key as it was applied …
Declassified from the NSA files for the first time in 1977, the Friedman Lectures on Cryptology included a puzzling note that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt received in 1935 by an anonymous author. Although part of this cryptic note has been deciphered, one part remains unsolved. Can you solve it? The …
Although maybe not considered an official type of code to hide secrets, the acronymic process can be used in certain ways and situations to conceal messages, clues, and hints in treasure hunts or other mysteries. The word Acronym is officially defined as a word formed from the initial letters of …
The mystery of Rennes le Chateau involves two coded parchments claimed to have been found by Berenger Sauniere in 1887 while restoring his church. Much controversy surrounds the discovery, as well as the meaning to the hidden messages found on the parchments. The purpose of this article is to only …
This segment of MW Codes, Ciphers, and Puzzles talks about the Ottendorf Cipher. Those of you who have watched the movie, National Treasure, are probably familiar with it, but just might not remember the characters saying the specific name for what the cipher was in the movie. In the …
There are many variations or types of substitution ciphers. One of the more simpler types is a number cipher. A number cipher is where a number takes the place of a letter in the alphabet. This can be done by numbering each letter of the alphabet, 1 thru 26, and …
This segment of the MW Codes, Ciphers, and Puzzle Series features the Keyword Cipher. The Keyword Cipher is similar to the Caesar Shift Cipher in that the alphabet is shifted; but instead of being shifted by a certain number, it is shifted by the use of a Keyword. For example, …
