Three curious ciphers
On Reddit, I came across three quite different but exciting ciphers. Two of them have not been solved yet, as far as I know.
A few weeks ago I blogged about unsolved mini-cryptograms, i.e. short strings whose meaning is unknown. In most cases, this is probably not an encryption in the true sense, but rather an abbreviation. Some mini-cryptograms may have no meaning at all.
The sundial cryptogram
Via the Reddit group “Codes & ciphers” I recently came across a minicryptogram that I had not known about before. It involves the inscription on a sundial located in a museum in the northern English town of Keighley. Reddit user “Sundiallist”, obviously an expert on sundials, posted the following picture of it:
Quelle/Source: Reddit
Above the number 1782, which probably stands for the year of construction of the sundial, one reads the following letters and numbers:
C.G . 1 51 3 3 . 3 4.1450
There are some discussion posts on Reddit about this mini-cryptogram, but the meaning is unclear. A Bible passage would be conceivable, of course, but I don’t know which one. 1450 could be a year, but one would still have to find out its relation to the characters in front of it.
Also possible would be a coded motto, as it is often found on sundials. “Do it like the sundial, count the bright hours only” is too long and also in the wrong language. But there are shorter sundial sayings, especially in Latin. On the linked Wikipedia page you can find for example MOX NOX (“Soon it will be night”) or RUIT HORA (“Time passes”).
Does any reader know more? Regardless, I have included the Keighley sundial in the cryptologic guidebook by Christian Baumann and myself.
The textbook cryptogram
While the Keighley sundial cryptogram is still unsolved, another encrypted message presented on Reddit could be deciphered. It is about the following text, which the owner of a schoolbook from 1890 wrote on its first page:
Quelle/Source: Reddit
The encryption method turned out to be a simple letter substitution. The solution is available on Reddit. If you feel like it, you can try it yourself.
The stone tablet cryptogram
And finally, I’d like to talk about a third crypto puzzle presented on Reddit. Reddit user GurvHD posted the following image of it:
Quelle/Source: Reddit
What looks like an old photo is actually a screenshot from a video that was shared on Twitter. So the stone tablet pictured is probably not an ancient object, but a retro production. Nevertheless, one can of course wonder what the (scrambled?) inscription means. I gladly accept hints.
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Further reading: Wer löst die Inschrift auf dem Kryptologen-Denkmal?
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