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The Beale ciphers are a set of three ciphertexts, one of which allegedly states the location of a buried treasure of gold and silver estimated to be worth over 20 million US dollars in today's money. The other two ciphertexts describe the content of the treasure, and list the names of the finders' next of kin, respectively.

The story

The treasure was said to have been obtained in 1818 (one of Beale's letters suggests crevice mining of metallic gold, somewhat implausibly in the claimed terrain, but nothing else is known) somewhere in what is now the American Southwest (where exactly is unknown, but speculation centers to the north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, based on one of Beale's letters) by a group of adventurers (about 30) led(?) by a man named Thomas Jefferson Beale (of whom no other trace has yet been found in any public or private record of the time).

It is claimed that Beale placed the ciphertexts in an iron box, and left it with a reliable person, a Lynchburg innkeeper, Robert Morriss, near Montvale in Bedford County, Virginia (where the treasure is said to have been buried). Beale promised to mail Morriss the keys, but they were never received; perhaps Beale died before he could do so. Morriss unsuccessfully attempted to solve the ciphers on his own but, decades later, passed the box and contents (three letters and three ciphertexts), and the story, to one of his friends.

Using a particular edition of the United States Declaration of Independence as the key for a book cipher, the friend successfully deciphered the second ciphertext, which gave descriptions of the buried treasure. The friend ultimately made the letters and ciphertexts public, apparently via Jas (James?) B Ward, in an 1885 pamphlet entitled The Beale Papers. Ward is thus apparently not 'the friend'. Ward himself is obscure, and is untraceable in local records with the exception that someone of that name was the owner of the home in which a Sarah Morriss, identified as the consort of Robert Morriss, died at 77 (Lynchburg Virginian newspaper, May 21, 1861), so perhaps he was "the friend" after all. There was no explanation of the accident which led to the solution of the second ciphertext, which perhaps suggests that there was additional information now lost (from Morriss?).

The deciphered message

The plaintext reads:

I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles, belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number "3," herewith:

The first deposit consisted of one thousand and fourteen pounds of gold, and three thousand eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited November, 1819. The second was made December, 1821, and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold, and twelve hundred and eighty-eight pounds of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange for silver to save transportation, and valued at US$13,000.

The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others. Paper number "1" describes the exact locality of the vault, so that no difficulty will be had in finding it.

Truth or hoax?

There has been considerable debate over whether the remaining two ciphertexts are real or hoaxes. The background story has several implausibilities, and is based almost entirely on circumstancial evidence and hearsay. Many cryptographers have also claimed that the two remaining ciphertexts have statistical characteristics which suggest that they are not actually encryptions of an English plaintext. Others have also questioned why Beale would have bothered writing three different ciphertexts (with at least two keys, if not ciphers) for what is essentially a single message in the first place. It is often claimed that, in many ways, the entire story seems far too implausible to be true. Some observers have noted that anachronistic use of several English terms (e.g. the word "stampede", not recorded before the 1840s) in the letters suggest composition no earlier than the 1840s, not the early 1820s, thus making the entire account less than credible.

Regardless, there have been many attempts to break the remaining cipher(s). Most attempts have tried other historical texts as keys (eg, the Magna Carta), assuming the ciphertexts were produced with some book cipher, but none have been recognized as successful to date. Breaking the cipher(s) may depend on random chance (as, for instance, stumbling upon a book key if the two remaining cyphertexts are actually book ciphers); so far, even the most skilled cryptanalysts who have attempted them have been defeated.

Digging for treasure in Bedford County

Doubts have not deterred many treasure hunters, however. The 'information' that there is buried treasure in Bedford County has stimulated many an expedition with shovels, and other implements of discovery, looking for likely spots. For more than a hundred years, people have been arrested for trespassing and unauthorized digging; some of them in groups as in the case of some folks from Pennsylvania in the 1990s. The number of manmade holes (up to "six feet deep" or so -- see the plaintext above) in Bedford County is said to be extraordinarily large; some get filled in, some don't. County inhabitants are said to by now lack enthusiasm and to generally view people with metal detectors with disfavor.

The story has been the subject of at least two television documentaries (one is in the UK's Mysteries series), several books, and considerable Internet activity. There is even a 2001 claim (and supporting Web site) of having decrypted one of the remaining ciphertexts and of finding the Beale vault -- minus its supposed treasure, (and any explanation of the cryptoanalysis).

The premise for the movie "National Treasure" ( imdb.com) released in 2004, is closely related to or inspired by the story of the Beale Treasure.

See also

• Other Famous Ciphertexts

External links

• The Legendary Beale Treasure
• Complete transcript of the three ciphers
• Overview of some of the literature on the Beale ciphers

• Cryptology section (some other recently met mysterious ucracked code online)

• Historical events in cryptography