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*********** Explorations ***********
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           -CIPHERNAUTS-

The following is an excerpt from the
May, 1987 issue of OMNI magazine:

The bait is buried treasure: a $14.7 million cache of gold, silver,and jewels
believed to have been stashed somewhere in the state of Virginia more than 150
years ago. The only clues to its where-
abouts:three slips of paper covered with a hodgepodge of 1,901 numbers.
    Some say it's a hoax, but the Beale Cypher Association (BCA) isn't ready to
give up its quest for the loot. For 25  years the society, whose members range
from IBM cryptographers and CIA spooks
to metal-detector hobbyists, has strugled in vain to decipher the numbers that
could reveal the directions to the cache. One BCA member, convinced that he had
broken the code, rushed to the prospective treasure site in Bedford County, VA.
,surrounded it with formidable fences,
hired round-the-clock guards,rented a
bulldozer, and unearthed-lo and behold-
a 1930s car. Other enthusiastic members
have sneaked onto private property to
dig under cover of darkness but were
seen,shot at,and arrested for trespassing.
   Carl Hammer,seventy-three,a former   director of computer science at Sperry
Univac and a pioneer in using computers to analyze the statistical properties ofciphers has spent 10 years on the ciphers and isn't through yet.
   Hammer himself ran extensive statis-
tical tests on the distribution of the
numbers in the undeciphered Beale papers and concluded, in a prizewinning paper,that the numbers are not random but
defintely conceal a message. Most crypt-analysts accept this conclusion, but the mere fact that there is a message, 
Hammer concedes, doesn't mean that the
whole thing isn't a hoax. Who's to say
that the message isn't something like,
"You're the biggest sucker in the universe, dodo brain?" But as long as there's
a chance that the treasure's really out
there, Hammer and the others aren't
about to give up.
------------------
Here's Your Chance
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   Decode the numbers (below) that lead
to the buried treasure...and buy yourself a shovel. The loot is yours if you
can find it. The attorney general of the state of Virginia passed a ruling in
the 1960s giving ownership of the treasure to whoever uncovers it, no matter
whose land it's on.
71,194,38,1701,89,76,11,83,1629,45,94,
63,132,16,111,95,84,341,975,14,40,64,27,81,139,213,63,90,1120,8,15,3,126,2018,
40,74,758,485,604,230,436,664,582,150,
251,284,308,231,124,211,486,225,401,370,11,101,305,139,189,17,33,88,208,193,145,1,94,73,416,918,263,28,500,538,356,117, 136,219,27,176,130,10,460,25,485,18,436,65,84,200,283,118,320,138,36,416,280,15,71,224,961,44,16,401,39,88,61,304,12,21,24,283,134,92,63,246,486,682,7,219,184, 360,780,18,64,463,474,131,160,79,73,440,95,18,64,581,34,69,128,367,460,17,81,12,103,820,62,116,97,103,862,70,60,1317,471,540,208,121,890,346,36,150,59,568,614, 13,120,63,219,812,2160,1780,99,35,18,21,136,872,15,28,170,88,4,30,44,112,18,147,436,195,320,37,122,113,6,140,8,120,305, 42,58,461,44,106,301,13,408,680,93,86,  116,530,82,568,9,102,38,416,89,71,216,  728,965,818,2,38,121,195,14,326,148,234,18,55,131,234,361,824,5,81,623,48,961,19,26,33,10,1101,365,92,88,181,275,346,201,206,86,36,219,320,829,840,68,326,19,48,122,85,216,284,919,861,326,985,233,64,68,232,431,960,50,29,81,216,321,603,14,612,81,360,36,51,62,194,78,60,200,314,676, 112,4,28,18,61,136,247,819,921,1060,464,895,10,6,66,119,38,41,49,602,423,962,302,294,875,78,14,23,111,109,62,31,501,823,216,280,34,24,150,1000,162,286,19,21,17,340,19,242,31,86,234,140,607,115,33,191,67,104,86,52,88,16,80,121,67,95,122,216,548,96,11,201,77,364,218,65,667,890,236,154,211,10,98,34,119,56,216,119,71,218, 1164,1496,1817,51,39,210,36,3,19,540,232,22,141,617,84,290,80,46,207,411,150,29,38,46,172,85,194,36,261,543,897,624,18, 212,416,127,931,19,4,63,96,12,101,418,  16,140,230,460,538,19,27,88,612,1431,90,716,275,74,83,11,426,89,72,84,1300,1706,814,221,132,40,102,34,858,975,1101,84,16,79,23,16,81,122,324,403,912,227,936,447,55,86,34,43,212,107,96,314,264,1065,323,428,601,203,124,95,216,814,2906,654,820,2,301,112,176,213,71,87,96,202,35,10,2,41,17,84,221,736,820,214,11,60,760

This guy died in the 1800s so you know
what manuscripts were available to him
for this coding.

For more information on the code or about membership in the Beale Cypher Association, send $1 to the BCA at Box 236,Warrington, PA 18976.

-This article was written by:
                             Deceiver X