Icarus,

I often wondered about the second Beale message. As the first message was a book code - seems reasonable that the second one should be too.

Did anyone try to use the covering letter that went with it as a key?

If it works, I'll share the gold with you...

From memory, the first Beale code was deciphered against the 'Declaration of Independance'; however, the document/book/whatever that the second (and of course more important [financially!!]) code has never been found or worked out.
One needs to look very hard at what literature was accessible in the US around that time (1820's).
I believe the 'stash' is currently valued at around US$20M.

The covering letter was lost hence that is why no-one has got very far in finding the gold!! It is believed the letter did contain instructions on how to decode the ciphertext.

[This message has been edited by Icarus (edited 01 July 2001).]

I can recommend "The Code Book" by Simon Singh. There is a whole chapter devoted to the Beale ciphers. As to the story of the rest of this thread, I am sure that I have seen another article somewhere about Chinese ciphers in a similar vein but I can't place it.

[This message has been edited by supermunk (edited 02 July 2001).]

If you are interested in Codes, try "The Code Breakers" by David Kahn. ISBN 0-684-83130-9. Kahn mentions the Thomas Jefferson Beale story on page 771. According to some of the Treasure Hunting magazines (my living in dreams hobby), there are also thoughts that the treasure has been found. Kahn also goes into the code breaking that was going on, prior to the Pearl Harbor attack.
It's good stuff lads, so if you want a good read, give it a try.
Regards, Max.

------------------
When I push the panic button, the breaker pops!

KIFIS
Have looked into the Chinese Morse Code, and came up with the following info:
The Chinese used thousand of wooden block, with the Chinese Letter on one side, and the four digit number on the other. This allowed someone who could not read, to pick the number, stamp it on an ink pad, and produce the letter. See:
http://www.wnt.com.au/chinlinc.html
Also, if you want to take it further, there are about 100 pages of Chinese letters and numbers on http://www.reasearch.att.com/~reeds/ctc.pdf
If you wanted to spend the time, print out the pages, and use them to string the message together, and try and find a Chinese elder, to help you decipher it.
Hopes this helps, Regards, Max

------------------
When I push the panic button, the breaker pops!

KIFIS
That second address should read:
http://www.research.att.com/~reeds/ctc.pdf
Regards, Max

------------------
When I push the panic button, the breaker pops!

Been there, done that!
There's actually quite a lot missing from that document in terms of being able to translate the message cleary.
Also, as the messages originated in mainland China, it is likely a different cipher as different versions were fairly 'location specific'.

Maxrevs:

Many thanks for your input to this most difficult question. I have been in touch with people all over the world and the answer to finding the Chinese decoding methods has always been negative except for Icarus and yourself. The book containing the ten thousand telegraphic numbers is the answer but where to find this book is the problem. However, we are progressing. Icarus is well on the way to solving the problem and when it is done we will put it up here and like all things that at first seem insurmountable it will appear simple. ( I hope !!) Thanks again.

KIFIS

I'm impressed by all this code-breaking knowledge. It's got me interested in the subject. Where can I find out more? Good luck with this one :)

Paddington,
Try "The Codebreakers", as mentioned above. It's costly, but lots of info. "The Code Book", by Simon Singh (ISBN 0-385-49532-3) is top of the line, and a little cheaper. It's got enough to get your feet wet.
Best regards, Max

If you buy the book (agreed, a good read) don't get too excited about the competition - it's over! But have fun trying to break them anyway, only got to stage-7 myself before the competition was won. :D