6 Lost Treasures Just Waiting To Be Found

Mental Floss ^ | 08 Sep 2009 | Rob Lammle

[BuffaloJack]

Wow, I’ll have to start rooting around the back yard.

[Constitution Day]

Very cool!

BTTT

[rockrr]

How much for a certain birth certificate?

[Pharmboy]

I used to own a weekend house in Delaware County, NY, about 15 miles from Phoenicia, so I had heard about The Dutchman’s treasure, but that’s the only one of the six that I was familiar with. Thanks for the post...

[SoDak]

Metropolis is a cool movie, and I’ve seen the one-sheet reproductions. I dig anything Art-Deco.

[Upstate NY Guy]

Ping

[Malsua]

One would think that with enough computing power, you could decipher the cipher.

[a fool in paradise]

But here’s the kicker: there are no known surviving posters from the film’s American release. No one is even sure what the American poster looked like. It could have resembled the German one-sheet, which features Maria, a stylized female robot, and a beautiful Art Deco cityscape above her.

I think if people dig in the newspaper and city photographer archives deep enough, there might be a clue.

Movies back then often had lavish lobby decorations and things in front of the theaters where movies played.

There are many such photos of the decorations for other contemporary films. It wouldn't be the poster (and most films had several posters, even on original release, an A-Sheet, B-Sheet, etc.) but it would at least give a hint of what people are looking for.

[a fool in paradise]

Jean Laffite’s treasure is snother lost treasure, possibly off the coast of Texas or Louisiana or...

[rednesss]

Not unless you knew the book that it was based on. It said the 2nd page was deciphered using a particular copy of the Declaration of Independence. He most likely used the same type of cypher.

[Pharmboy]

I would try the King James Version for page one...”In the beginning...”

[Phlyer]

One would think that with enough computing power, you could decipher the cipher.

The problem is that it's not a cipher, it's a code. A cipher is a substitution - often with a very complex substitution algorithm (e.g. the famous "Enigma" machine of WWII). But there is still an underlying pattern, and computers can attack it to find that patter. It's aided by the fact the "unencoded" message follows the rules of language (most common letter in English is "e", etc.).

But a true code uses one word or phrase to refer to an entirely different item, and there doesn't have to be a logical relationship or anything else that can be attacked by a computer. If you have a big enough sample you can sometimes work out the code relationships, though it's often just a probability rather than an assured translation. The famous example here is the deduction that "AF" meant "Midway" in the Japanese code just before the battle of Midway, deduced because the pilot who transmitted a message about "AF" was flying near Midway at the time. But AF could have meant anything, and all the computer analysis can tell you is that some transmitted characters (in this case, in "coded" Japanese) become "AF" when "decoded" (that's the cipher part).

A book code or document code needs the translation book to let you know that 793 214 refers to "north", and not "apple." The most a computer can do for you is to let you know if a candidate book or document might be the basis of the code by whether the resulting 'clear language' message makes sense. If you try Genesis as the basis of the book code (as apparently someone did with the Declaration of Independence) and it starts translating into something that looks like meaningful sentences or data, it might be the right book. However, even that is version dependent.

[ICU812]

One would think that with enough computing power, you could decipher the cipher.

No, not if its a book cipher. A book cipher uses numbers like page number, line number and character number to encode text. For example 4,15,37 could mean 4th page, 15th line and 37th character. With codes like this the book in question becomes the key to solving the cipher, not unlike what cryptanalysts call a "one time pad". Without the book in question, and the specific edition of the book in question at that, you are pretty much out of luck. It says on Wikipedia that one of the three documents was decoded using a specific printed edition of the Declaration of Independence. If one were to take this seriously you'd start by checking it against old out-of-print books that were around when the cipher was written (might be a job for Google Books!) Of course there is the very large probability that this is all an old hoax.

[Onelifetogive]

Assuming the barrels weren’t destroyed and the coins haven’t been exposed to the elements all this time, these missing coins should be fairly flawless. If you estimate 5,000 coins at $600 each, you’re looking at $3,000,000

Of course this is bogus. The value of the coin is based on its rareness. If you had 5,000, they ould be that much less rare.

I wonder if statistical analysis could indicate whether these coins ever came back into circulation. (i.e Is this amount significant enough to compare to the years before and after to determine if these are "missing" from the available supply.)

[a fool in paradise]

Of course there is the very large probability that this is all an old hoax.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Of these, perhaps the best shot is Dutch Schultz' alleged treasure: In preparation, he placed $7 million dollars inside a safe, drove to upstate New York, and buried it in a hidden location so he’d have a nest egg when he got out of prison. The only other person who knew where the safe was buried was the bodyguard who helped him dig the hole. Shortly after, both men were gunned down by hitmen inside the Palace Chophouse Restaurant in Newark, New Jersey. The transcript of Dutch' last ramblings are available online (I saw them not long ago, didn't know about this). Thanks BGHater! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[Old Professer]

Since it seems to have involved six old lifetime bachelors and mostly took place before the SLM, it could just be a fairy tale.

[mowowie]

I would like to find the original Amber Room.
I think it may be sitting on the bottom of a lake somewhere.

[colorado tanker]

Read the Wiki on Dutch Schulz. Wow, that guy was ruthless even by Mafia standards.

The hit was ordered by the Mafia Commission, the organization all the families belonged to. Then U.S. Attorney Tom Dewey was closing in on Schulz for tax evasion and Schulz wanted to hit Dewey. Joey Bananas thought Schulz was bananas and if he hit Dewey the heat would be on all of them.

Another interesting fact is he converted from Judaism to Catholicism, some say to get along better with the Italian mobs. He is buried in a Catholic cemetery but his body is draped in a talit, a Jewish prayer shawl.

The legend is his enemies, including Lucky Luciano, looked for the safe the rest of their lives but never found it.