Compete to crack secrets lost to history—for fun, clout, and (no) profit
How to get on it: crack something on the problems list, or bring a document nobody has worked on and crack that. Submit the method and the test that settles it.
Submissions open shortly.
Submissions are not open yet, which makes the standings a lot easier to compute.
| # | User | New solutions | Systems recovered | Partial results | Problems registered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @offgramercy | 38 | 4 | 31 | 239 |
| 2 | vacant | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | vacant | — | — | — | — |
Documented negatives are not scored, but 9 dead ends were written up with their denominators, which is the harder half of the work.
Problems registered counts top-level problems or correspondence clusters, not individual cards, letters, or solutions. A cipher nobody has catalogued is worth as much here as a reading: find one, show where it is held, and it goes on the list with your name against it.
An umbrella register receives no additional result credit for its numbered children. New solutions are project decipherments; unresolved publication priority is disclosed in the individual record and is not a claim to the first-ever reading.
A new, defensible reading the project produced itself.
| # | Problem | User |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Barney–Mallory Confederate Code Identifying Webster’s 1850 edition decoded 17 of 18 word coordinates mechanically; context and source evidence support guns for the defective final group. | @offgramercy |
| 19 | Bascom–Milroy Route Telegram The route search recovered a coherent 68-word dispatch. Manuscript alternatives and the year remain qualified; publication priority is unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 24 | De Leon’s Lost Symbol Alphabet The previously recovered core alphabet stands, with a revised interpretation of rare forms and a withdrawn copying-error claim. | @offgramercy |
| 50 | TEL474 – Sheldon–Eckert Fortress Monroe Ledger The project recovered all 49 cells of Webster’s order to arrange transport for 5,700 sick prisoners, with no prior exact reading found in the bounded audit. | @offgramercy |
| 84 | TEL784, Fort Monroe to City Point All 98 payload cells are mechanically read as Ord's fraud-investigation report to Grant; bounded Rule 8 found no prior exact clear, and two public rows advance the register to 394. | @offgramercy |
| 85 | TEL513, Army of the James Artillery Return All 69 payload cells are mechanically read as a five-battery strength return; an independent audit found zero gaps, and Amos to New York advances the public register to 395. | @offgramercy |
| 86 | TEL511, Army of the James Best Batteries All 50 content cells are mechanically read as a five-battery ranking; an independent audit found zero gaps, and Negro to Artillery advances the public register to 396. | @offgramercy |
| 87 | TEL523, Fort Monroe Transport Report All 81 payload cells are mechanically read as the Fort Monroe transport report; an independent audit found zero gaps, and the five closing transfers add no public key row. | @offgramercy |
| 88 | TEL518, New York Transportation Query All 24 payload cells are mechanically read as a transportation query; an independent audit found zero gaps, and the exact stable/literal partition adds no public key row. | @offgramercy |
| 89 | TEL525, Fort Monroe Embarkation Outcome All 70 payload cells are mechanically read as an embarkation outcome report; an independent audit found zero gaps, and the exact evidence partition adds no public key row. | @offgramercy |
| 91 | Ben Russel Postcard The writing convention is established and more than 30 English words are readable. A few pale details remain uncertain because of the source image. | @offgramercy |
| 102 | Jack and M. Jallett Postcard The full note is readable as a thank-you message ending with love from Jack. | @offgramercy |
| 103 | Nan's Dorchester Postcard The complete personal message is recovered, including an affectionate closing and an afternoon reminder. | @offgramercy |
| 111 | Forest Beefe Postcard The complete farewell is recovered, correcting an earlier public misreading of its opening words. | @offgramercy |
| 119 | Ralph Duckworth and Minnie Storey-Bates Correspondence Seven campaign messages are fully read, four are prior-solution controls, and one is limited by its source. A separate rebus item is cataloged independently. | @offgramercy |
| 124 | Charlie and Miss B. Correspondence Both affectionate messages are recovered. Two small source anomalies are marked as uncertain rather than forced. | @offgramercy |
| 125 | Ezra and Leeah Doane Correspondence A shared number alphabet opens all three cards, revealing plans, worries about privacy, and a missed visit with an apology. | @offgramercy |
| 127 | Ray Bartley Postcard Packet All five private passages are fully transcribed and read. The remaining limits concern damaged source details, not the messages. | @offgramercy |
| 129 | Fritz Lehmann Correspondence Nine targets are fully read, two are bounded by physical damage, and one retains five unreadable longhand lines despite a readable number block and signature. | @offgramercy |
| 132 | G. Groves Correspondence Every group is read. The notes concern meeting plans, a safe arrival, kindness, and an assurance of honest affection. | @offgramercy |
| 134 | Fritz Salmen and Frl. Braun Postcards The public number alphabet is verified across the group. Three cards are fully read, seven are substantial partials, and 21 yield bounded phrases. | @offgramercy |
| 136 | Madeleine Boucheron Postcard The number line reads as an affectionate souvenir. The closing is probably a challenge to guess the sender, but the final signature is uncertain. | @offgramercy |
| 138 | O. Davy and Nell Correspondence Both messages are completely read. They are affectionate notes signed George and include plans for Sunday contact. | @offgramercy |
| 141 | Annie Kepler Postcard The insert is fully read as an affectionate declaration signed with initials. | @offgramercy |
| 142 | Thompson and Edwin H. Mallison Postcard The complete playful and flirtatious message is recovered. | @offgramercy |
| 143 | E. R. Mobsby Postcards A shared key gives complete readings of both cards. | @offgramercy |
| 144 | Daphne Lidell Postcard All 26 tokens are decoded, completing the private portion of the note. | @offgramercy |
| 145 | Frederica Clark Postcard The message is fully read through its surviving text. Its unfinished tail reflects the original card rather than an unresolved key. | @offgramercy |
| 149 | Sallie and Peggy Lewis Postcard The full message is read as a note about Cardiff and is signed Mollie. | @offgramercy |
| 153 | Edna Mist Postcards Both cards are fully read. The messages discuss a mother's illness and Christmas. | @offgramercy |
| 154 | Edith Elsworth Postcard The complete reading is a list of terms and buildings. | @offgramercy |
| 155 | Walt and Miss Nicholls Postcard The complete text is read with a direct letter-number alphabet, confirmed by a previously solved card from the same correspondence. | @offgramercy |
| 156 | Abie and Henry Wulf Postcard One reversed alphabet accounts for all 80 tokens. Repeated words for affection and Henry's name provide internal checks. | @offgramercy |
| 157 | Flossie and Jack Stalland Postcard A direct letter-number reading accounts for every cell and yields a complete affectionate note signed Flossie. | @offgramercy |
| 160 | Miss Adah Thompson Postcard A paired-alphabet Pigpen key accounts for all 58 cells. The complete reading preserves source anomalies and one uncertain modifier. | @offgramercy |
| 161 | Miss Ramsay Postcard Direct Morse accounts for all 52 groups. Fifty-one are standard groups, while one exact unsplit run is not. | @offgramercy |
| 163 | Grace Janson Valentine A direct letter-number reading accounts for all 84 legible values and recovers a complete playful note from Elsie. | @offgramercy |
| 167 | K. Williams-Jones Postcard An adjacent-pair letter-number key accounts for every readable value and predicts both withheld rows. The letter anticipates a reunion and ends with love and kisses. | @offgramercy |
A lost key, alphabet or mechanism rebuilt from historically known material. Not a new-plaintext claim.
| # | Problem | User |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Maury’s Mobile Cipher Insertions A clear companion and COMPLETE VICTORY reproduce five encrypted name insertions 29/29, correcting ‘Old Kennelle’ to RED GAUNTLET. | @offgramercy |
| 39 | Hardee’s Augusta Telegram to Seddon COMPLETE VICTORY and variant Beaufort reproduce ‘SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND BALES OF COTTON DAMAGED’ 39/39 against an independent clear. | @offgramercy |
| 40 | Hardee’s Orangeburg and Branchville Telegram COME RETRIBUTION decodes a route fragment containing SOUTH FORKS, but its first token reads CAPMER and still has no secure interpretation. | @offgramercy |
| 43 | Hoke’s Wilmington Telegram to Lee COME RETRIBUTION predicts the held-out DISPUTE span 7/7 and reconstructs all 34 encrypted letters; a clear companion means the result is system recovery. | @offgramercy |
A real result, but the target's reading or mechanism is still incomplete. These are the ones most worth taking off my hands.
| # | Problem | User |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Moray–Wood Edinburgh Letter A substantial conditional Scots reading now exists, but source conflicts and two unknown codes prevent a verified decipherment. | @offgramercy |
| 21 | Castaignère Constantinople Dispatches Two Louis XIV dispatches improved from an approximately 85% public partial to 90.9% hard-resolved and functionally readable, with four genuine gaps remaining. | @offgramercy |
| 28 | M618 Roll 19 Cipher-Telegram Census A source census isolates Confederate cipher traffic, verifies items 3956 and 4042 as known-answer controls, and links damaged item 4110 to COME RETRIBUTION. | @offgramercy |
| 29 | Pickett–Seddon Petersburg Telegram OUR DESTINY IS ONE yields a held-out-valid core—‘PASSED THROUGH HERE YESTERDAY … FOR NORFOLK’—while the opening and parts of the tail remain unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 30 | Pickett’s Petersburg Cipher Telegram OUR DESTINY IS ONE independently recovers ‘SECTY OF NAVY … TWO GUNBOATS BELOW THE OBSTRUCTIONS … PROMISED,’ with the first three letters and copy errors unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 41 | Taylor’s Damaged Meridian Receipt COME RETRIBUTION strongly explains the damaged receipt and recovers ‘REMOVAL OF BRIG GENL,’ but insertion/deletion ambiguity leaves the 31-letter tail unread. | @offgramercy |
| 62 | McClellan and Eckert Cipher Telegrams, June 1862 A state learned from one June 1862 message read four of five exact shells in another, but no locally held ciphertext currently qualifies for the next test. | @offgramercy |
| 64 | TEL293, Pope to McClellan The sealed cross-message replay scores 5/6 strict occurrences and 4/5 distinct shells literally, supporting a qualified partial mechanics result. | @offgramercy |
| 67 | Huntington Orphan Codebooks Bounded censuses now fix EC37 and EC40 at 82 canvases each while leaving their date/system identity unresolved; a finite Gulf search found no authenticated EC38 traffic edge. | @offgramercy |
| 68 | Eckert Ledger Replay Repair Exact fixtures yield 677 EC12 and 659 EC13 records (19/16); three pairs reject, while three sequences survive source review as provisional documentary relations with public content and no mechanics. | @offgramercy |
| 70 | NARA Union Traffic Discovery Pipeline A repeatable M473/M504 source-finding workflow produced several decisive plaintext matches, but a complete deduplicated reel manifest and recall test remain absent. | @offgramercy |
| 77 | Polk’s Meridian Cipher Telegram A near-complete proposed reading concerns permission for Pollard’s cotton-carrying vessels to depart; one ciphertext letter remains unsupported. | @offgramercy |
| 83 | TEL767–TEL768, Fort Monroe Dispatch Pair Source-first review fixed public clears and an admitted consecutive EC25/EC13 documentary witness relation; an audited pixel-only transcript now fixes the EC25 surface before comparison. | @offgramercy |
| 135 | Hedwig Zipfel and Hugo Correspondence The shared key recovers the first 45 letters and punctuation with confidence. The remainder is still open. | @offgramercy |
| 137 | Brühl Correspondence The first row is securely read from the shared correspondence evidence. The rest remains unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 140 | Gertrude Forrest Correspondence Both postcards now have substantial partial readings, with unresolved forms and competing interpretations. | @offgramercy |
| 148 | Will and A. Russell Postcard Several chunks have secure readings, but the complete source sequence has not been recovered. The result remains partial. | @offgramercy |
| 151 | Ernest and Amelia Letter Every source cell has a stable leading reading and several repeated words are visible, but the main text and one overlay remain unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 211 | May Graham Postcard A substantial partial reading survives, with unresolved writing and a disputed greeting. | @offgramercy |
| 218 | R. Easton Postcard A near-complete proposed reading remains limited by specific source conflicts. | @offgramercy |
| 219 | Brimble Postcard A substantial reading is supported by a clearer source, with several unresolved words and characters. | @offgramercy |
| 221 | Surget–Taylor Forwarded Exchange Known-key applications yield substantial but imperfect readings, with clock and source discrepancies unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 222 | Maury’s Courier Cipher A known-key application substantially identifies an army-and-navy signal-alphabet request, with unresolved source letters. | @offgramercy |
| 223 | Taylor’s January Telegram to Davis An imperfect known-key reading recovers substantial content, whose central passages were already quoted in later scholarship. | @offgramercy |
| 224 | Surget’s Telegram to Martin A substantial proposed reading concerns independent intelligence collectors entering New Orleans; two source defects remain. | @offgramercy |
| 225 | Biggs’s Fort Monroe Forwarding The first dispatch was already published. A historical codebook and related source pairs support a reading of the second, with three uncertain spellings. | @offgramercy |
| 228 | Sophie Halbgebauer Postcard A strong partial reading remains incomplete in the faint continuation and signature. | @offgramercy |
| 230 | Philip Chapman Postcard A published partial has been extended, while the district name and closing remain unresolved. | @offgramercy |
| 231 | Ern and Miss Riggs Postcards Two postcards have substantial partial readings with unresolved digits and competing partitions. | @offgramercy |
| 233 | French Numeric Postcards (Provisional) Saved partial readings contain affectionate correspondence, with unresolved source details and uncertain relationships among the seven cards. | @offgramercy |
| 239 | Rusdorff’s London Letters A fixed alphabet convention gives connected Latin across the letters, with literal source failures retained and substantial on-page plaintext evidence explicitly collated. | @offgramercy |