The second cigarette case cryptogram

A microcryptogram on a cigarette case poses a mystery. This brings the number of cigarette cases with encrypted inscriptions that I know of to two.

Deutsche Version

One of the most puzzling unsolved ciphers I have encountered in recent years is an inscription on a cigarette case from Thuringia:

Quelle/Source: Owner of the cigaret case, used with permission

As you can see, it is a hand-engraved dedication dated December 24, 1909, which suggests that this case was given as a Christmas gift.

The cipher text looks like a simple letter substitution, as my readers have solved dozens of times. Surprisingly, no one has been able to decipher this ciphertext. I will still be happy to receive any relevant information.

Another cigarette case

Mike Pfaeffle, a crypto expert from the USA, whom I met at a conference years ago, has thankfully pointed me to another cryptographically interesting cigarette case. However, it is not clear whether there really is encryption here.

Quelle/Source: Mike Pfaeffle

According to Mike, the case was probably made between 1900 and 1920. The decoration is in the New Egyptian style, also known as “Egyptian Revival”.

Scrambled initials?

The interesting part of the decoration is the total of nine geometric symbols.

Quelle/Source: Mike Pfaeffle

Mike knows cigarette cases that show the owner’s initials at this point. He therefore suspects that three letters are encoded here. So we are dealing with a microcryptogram (I also use this term in cases where it is not clear whether there is an encoded text at all).

Since there are three symbols (circle, square, triangle), we can encode 27 letters in this way. If we set circle=0, triangle=1 and square=2, we get:

120 = O
110 = L
001 = A

According to this, the owner’s intimates would be OLA.

Of course, this interpretation is pure speculation. It could also be three other letters. Or we may be dealing with an ornament that does not represent a coded text at all. Can any reader say more about this?

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Further reading: Another crypto mystery from Thuringia?

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