Beale Ciphers

According to legend, Thomas J. Beale buried a large sum of money in gold and diamonds in the 1820s. He secreted his loot someplace near Bedford, Virginia, and then gave an innkeeper a coded note outlining their location. The treasure can only be located by deciphering three ciphertexts. One informs you the location of the treasure, one describes it, and one identifies the owner and their next of kin. Two of these ciphertexts have sadly yet to be cracked. Both the first and third mysteries remain unexplained. The second one, which described the contents of the treasure, was cracked, though.

The translated document claims that Beale concealed certain gems, as well as 1921 pounds of gold and 5000 pounds of silver, in iron pots. The current estimated overall worth is roughly in the neighborhood of $100 million. According to legend, the innkeepers attempted to decipher the ciphers themselves years after receiving them and believing Beale would never return. He forwarded it to a friend after failing to crack the second cipher, who used the Declaration of Independence as a key. In essence, one had to align the document's numbers with the cipher's numbers. You would then need to seek up the 67th, 98th, and 1167th words of the Declaration if the cipher had read "67 98 1167."

Nobody has been able to successfully solve one or three up to this point. Many others believe them to be a hoax as well, but that is still up for debate. But hey, at least one was deciphered, and we now know that someplace, possibly, a modest fortune waits for one clever codebreaker.