In 1907 an encrypted postcard was sent from Box, UK, to nearby Chippenham. Can a reader decipher this note?
When I cover an encrypted postcard on Klausis Krypto Kolumne, I often need to take a geography lesson. This time, a postcard I found on a website has taken me to Chippenham, a town in Wiltshire, England, 21 kilometers east of Bath and 154 kilometers west of London. The world-famous Stonehenge monument is located 50 kilometers to the South of this place.
In 1907 an unknown person (probably male) sent an encrypted postcard to an unmarried woman in Chippenham. This postcard shows the Blindhouse, a building located in Box, a village west of Chippenham. The journey the card took from there was only about 10 kilometers long. The website the postcard stems from is titled Box People and Places. Only after I had realized that Box is the name of a village, I understood what this site is about.
Here’s the text side of the postcard:
While the encrypted text is well readable, the name of the recipient is hard to identifiy. Maybe a reader can see more than I do.
The ciphertext is probably a message from the recepient’s lover (most encrypted postcards are of this kind). The text is quite short, which makes it more difficult to decipher. On the other hand, the spaces between the words are visible, which makes word guessing possible.
Can a reader break this encrypted postcard?
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Further reading: The NSA crypto museum asks for support: Who can solve these encrypted postcards?
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