Confederate Army Cipher Disk
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Owner:
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martin67
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Released:
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Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Origin:
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North Carolina, United States
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Recently Spotted:
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Unknown Location
This is not collectible.
Use TB6R5QV to reference this item.
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Use the disk to leave a quick encripted message in the log. Use the cache number you find it in as the key.
The Confederate Cipher Disc was a mechanical wheel cipher consisting of two concentric discs, each with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, that was used for the encryption of secret messages of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It was created by Francis LaBarre, a gold and silver worker, and was based on the Vigenère Cipher.
Not many real Confederate Cipher Discs have survived and there are only five known to exist today. Two of these are in the hands of private collectors, one is part of the collection of the Smithonian Institute and two are at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond (Virginia, USA).
To encrypt a message you would need to chose a key work or phrase. This could be any length so a persons name to paragraph from a book could be used. Each character in the message to be encrypted or decipher would index the key in sync. If the key work was KEY and the message GEOCACHE then set the inner A to the key letter "K" then find the "G" on the Inner wheel and its encrypted value is on the outer wheel. Next Inner A to E then A to Y and repeat back to K.
Example Key character K E Y K E Y K E
Message G E O C A C H E
Encripted Q I M M E A R I
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