Compete to crack secrets lost to history—for fun, clout, and (no) profit
The numerical marks vary only between 1, 2, and 3, while the enclosing shapes repeat. The position of a number beside a frame does not create a new letter by itself. Both shape and number have to be read together. The open prose and picture-side verse already make smiling the occasion for the card; they do not supply the hidden seven-row text.[1]
An early inspection of overlapping crops collapsed the middle row of the upper block and reported only two rows there. Isolating the native coordinates restored three distinct baselines. This mattered: a convincing sentence assembled from overlapping crops would still have omitted part of the document. The final edition accounts for three upper and four lower rows.[2]
The signs use the nine row-major Pigpen frames. Their order is ┘ ⊔ └ / ⊐ □ ⊏ / ┐ ⊓ ┌. Numeral 1 selects A through I, numeral 2 selects J through R, and numeral 3 selects S through Z. Thus ┘2 gives J and └3 gives U. The writer uses numerals where the corresponding form of the system uses one, two, or three dots. One unchanged table reads every row.
| Frame | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ┘ | A | J | S |
| ⊔ | B | K | T |
| └ | C | L | U |
| ⊐ | D | M | V |
| □ | E | N | W |
| ⊏ | F | O | X |
| ┐ | G | P | Y |
| ⊓ | H | Q | Z |
| ┌ | I | R |
| Row | Recorded signs | Reads |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ┘2 └3 ┘3 ⊔3 / ⊏1 ⊏2 ┌2 / ┘1 / ┘3 ⊐2 ┌1 └2 □1 | JUST FOR A SMILE |
| 2 | ⊏1 ┌2 ⊏2 ⊐2 / ⊐2 ┐3 / ┘3 □3 □1 □1 ⊔3 ⊓1 □1 ┘1 ┌2 ⊔3 | FROM MY SWEETHEART |
| 3 | □3 ⊏2 □2 ⊔3 / ┐3 ⊏2 └3 / !! | WONT YOU!! |
| 4 | □3 ┌1 ┘3 ⊓1 / ┐3 ⊏2 └3 / □3 □1 ┌2 □1 / ⊓1 □1 ┌2 □1 | WISH YOU WERE HERE |
| 5 | ┌1 / └1 ┘1 ┌2 □1 ┘3 ┘3 / □3 ┌1 ⊔3 ⊓1 / ┐3 ⊏2 └3 | I CARESS WITH YOU |
| 6 | ⊐1 ⊏2 / ┐3 ⊏2 └3 / └2 ⊏2 ⊐3 □1 / - | DO YOU LOVE - |
| 7 | └2 ⊏2 ⊐3 □1 . | LOVE. |
Capital letters below are the recovered cipher; ordinary prose retains its original wording and capitalization. The picture-side verse is transcribed on the problem page.
A red letter day- JUST FOR A SMILE FROM MY SWEETHEART WONT YOU!! I think this will make you smile Too - How does it seem to be a working man again? Just remember your monday night duty. WISH YOU WERE HERE I CARESS WITH YOU DO YOU LOVE - LOVE.
Every sign in all seven physical rows encodes back to its recorded frame and numeral. Repeated values stay fixed between the two separated blocks. The result does not need an exception for the awkward I CARESS WITH YOU; that wording is precisely what the table gives. No unreadable cipher sign remains. This is a mechanical replay of a checked source transcript, not a claim that a separate historical plaintext was found.[2]
The private message is plainly affectionate: it addresses a sweetheart, wishes Edwin were present, and asks about love. It does not identify Thompson’s given name or gender, establish the relationship, or show whether 26 October was a birthday or anniversary. The last LOVE. may be a sign-off or an answer to the preceding question; the source does not choose between them.
At acquisition HCP1327 was marked “Not solved” and supplied no key or plaintext. Searches of the local 995-card index and exact identifiers, recipient/address, and distinctive wording found no prior exact-item reading or sibling. That is a bounded finding, not proof of a first-ever reading of this elementary system. The source remains an unspecified private collection, so this edition supplies text and links without reproducing its scans.[3]