One message not meant for us to solve, or at least those living on the Earth, is the coded like message created on the Pioneer Plaques. These two plaques were sent into space by NASA in effort to communicate with extraterrestrial life- if they happen to intercept or discover the …
In the back of my book, Armchair Treasure Hunts: The Quests for Hidden Treasure, are words from Forrest Fenn that are especially for searchers of the Chase. However, they are in code- which goes along with the flowing and fun theme of the book. Although I have shared Questions and …
One of the most well-known explorers, but least talked about unsolved codes, is the signature of Christopher Columbus. It might be surprising, that to this day, no one is completely sure on its meaning. The cause for this is because Columbus never explained his reasoning for adopting the mysterious writings …
The highly anticipated book of Armchair Treasure Hunts: The Quests for Hidden Treasures by Jenny Kile, with the Foreword written by Forrest Fenn is now available! The book features the following: (UPDATE: this book has been discontinued and replaced with The Ultimate Guide to Armchair Treasure Hunts.) Foreword by Forrest …
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 following may sound like scenes from a James Bond movie. However, they are real life occurrences of the mid 1900’s. Part of this story begins with a 14-year-old newspaper boy, Jimmy Bozart, who was given a nickel in change in 1953. Another part begins with a top-secret flight mission …
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 …
