Two more encrypted postcards wait to be solved. Can a reader help?
Earlier this week, I reported on two encrypted postcards I have recently come across. My readers solved both of them. However, my recent Google search for encrypted postcards produced another interesting result. In addition, a reader provided me with an unsolved postcard cryptogram from his collection. So, I can present two more unsolved encrypted postcards today.
A postcard from Albuquerque (2010)
I found the following postcard on the website of the LA Times:
As it seems, a newspaper reader sent this card to LA Times staff writer Steven Zeitchik in 2010. It is written in Morse code – probably easy to solve. If you can read the message, please let me know.
There’s another Morse code postcard I found via Google. However, this one doesn’t count, as it is already solved. It’s introduced on a blog named Papergreat:
According to Papergreat author Chris Otto, the text was written in an outdated Morse code variant significantly different from the Morse code we use today. Here’s the cleartext he figured out:
HELLO.
HOW YOU WAS?
IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF GETTING HARMED
YOU SANDO LIKE ILCAYC ON LHE OLHER CIDE
HOW ICE TOM 7 E?
RICA
The second half of the cleartext looks a little strange. Either Chris Otto or the sender must have made mistakes. If you can correct them, Chris Otto will certainly appreciate a hint.
A postcard from Zurich (1907)
The next encrypted postcard was provided to me by a blog reader:
The picture shows the headquarters of the Swiss company Brown Boveri located in the town of Baden. In the cold war era, Brown Boveri produced encryption machines. However, this postcard was written half a century earlier. It was stamped in Zurich, Switzerland in 1907. It is written in a shorthand.
The receiver was a woman named Cécile Harder living in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a town in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. La Chaux-de-Fonds is famous for its clock industry. When the card was written, there was a company named Harder in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It produced gold cases for clocks. This company had the same address as Cécile Harder, so this woman might have been the wive or the daughter of the company owner.
According to the blog reader, who provided me this card, the shorthand used is neither Gabelsberger nor Stolze-Schrey. Perhaps it’s a Swiss or French system.
Can a reader help? The owner of the card would certainly appreciate it.
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Further reading: Who can decrypt this postcard?
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