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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
A couple of people have asked me about this cipher. It
is called the pigpen cipher (because of the little pigpens that you draw) or
the Mason cipher (because it was once used by Masons). It was also reportedly
used by the Confederate States in the Civil War. The letters in the diagram
(above left) may be rearranged in some easily remembered order. And the diagram
is a guide to drawing the encrypted text.
On the right is some encrypted text, using
the above key. You should be able to figure out how the lines and dots are used
in this encrypted message. This is just a simple substitution cipher, like a
cryptogram. If I had not given you the key, a message this short may have been
difficult. In general, a larger message could be broken easily. Anyway, the
above message says "You can read this."
I was just reading a book on codes and ciphers which gave the key diagram with the letters A-I and N-V going top to bottom. That may be more common, for all I know.