Cryptograms from the Chinese gold bars

For example, one of the bars has the following arrangement: 20K jpeg
     HLMTAHGBGFNIV
 ZUQUPNZN  ABRYCTUGVZXUPB
      MVERZRLQDBHQ
GKJFHYXODIE UGMNCBXCFLDBEY
       VIOHIKNNGUAB
    HFXPCQYZVATXAWIZPVE

If you turn the bar around, the other end of the bar has the following lines, interspersed with lines of Chinese characters:

    JKGFIJPMCWSAEK
SKCDKJCDJCYQSZKTZJPXPWIRN
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE
 FEWGDRHDDEEUMFFTEEMJXZR
RHZVIYQIYSXVNQXQWIOVWPJO
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE
 FEWGDRHDDEEUMFFTEEMJXZR
SKCDKJCDJCYQSZKTZJPXPWIRN
RHZVIYQIYSXVNQXQWIOVWPJO
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE
SKCDKJCDJCYQSZKTZJPXPWIRN


On another bar we find the following lines:
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE
FEWGDRHDDEEUMFFTEEMJXZR     FEWGDRHDDEEUMFFTEEMJXZR
        YQHUDTABGALLOWLS    RHZVIYQIYSXVNQXQWIOVWPJO
          VIOHIKNNGUAB      HFXPCQYZVATXAWIZPVE
          MVERZRLQDBHQ           KOWVRSRKWTMLDH
             ZUQUPNZN

             VIOHIKNNGUAB
20K jpeg
Click on the image for another page with a larger image.


Finally, on one bar we find the following arrangement:
    UGMNCBXCFLDBEY           VIOHIKNNGUAB
                           HFXPCQYZVATXAWIZPVE
                            YQHUDTABGALLOWLS
                           XLYPISNANIRUSFTFWMIY
                           KOWVRSRKWTMLDH
                           JKGFIJPMCWSAEK
                           ABRYCTUGVZXUPB
                           GKJFHYXODIE
RHZVIYQIYSXVNQXQWIOVWPJO         ZUQUPNZN
SKCDKJCDJCYQSZKTZJPXPWIRN       GKJFHYXODIE
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE
20K jpeg
Click on the image for another page with a larger image.


Clearly some of these are significant because they are repeated. Here is a list of all of the known cryptograms. Some of the letters are hard to read so there may be inaccuracies.

SKCDKJCDJCYQSZKTZJPXPWIRN 	length 25
MQOLCSJTLGAJOKBSSBOMUPCE 	length 24
RHZVIYQIYSXVNQXQWIOVWPJO 	length 24
FEWGDRHDDEEUMFFTEEMJXZR 	length 23
XLYPISNANIRUSFTFWMIY		length 20
HFXPCQYZVATXAWIZPVE		length 19
YQHUDTABGALLOWLS		length 16
UGMNCBXCFLDBEY			length 14
ABRYCTUGVZXUPB			length 14
JKGFIJPMCWSAEK			length 14
KOWVRSRKWTMLDH			length 14
HLMTAHGBGFNIV			length 13
MVERZRLQDBHQ			length 12
VIOHIKNNGUAB			length 12
GKJFHYXODIE			length 11
ZUQUPNZN			length 8

Return to the Chinese bars story and images .


The information at this site is Copyright 1996, International Association for Cryptologic Research .

Return to the IACR home page