Cryptologia 45(3), pp. 282-286.
ISSN/ISBN: Not available at this time. DOI: 10.1080/01611194.2020.1821409
Abstract: The Beale Papers is an 1885 pamphlet in which there are three ciphers, said to contain the location of a hidden treasure. In this paper the ciphers are viewed through Benford’s Law. Statistical analysis show that the the ciphers deviate from the law—cipher 2 less so than 1 & 3. Furthermore the numbers in the uncracked ciphers do not come from the same distribution as the cracked one, but it seems that the uncracked ciphers might share a similar random distribution. One possible explanation is that cipher 1 & 3 are faked in a similar manner, another is that they might share the same key.
Bibtex:
@article{,
author = {Viktor Wase },
title = {Benford’s law in the Beale ciphers},
journal = {Cryptologia},
volume = {45},
number = {3},
pages = {282--286},
year = {2020},
publisher = {Taylor & Francis},
doi = {10.1080/01611194.2020.1821409},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01611194.2020.1821409?journalCode=ucry20},
}
Reference Type: Journal Article
Subject Area(s): General Interest