Mark Koltko-Rivera

These five cryptograms are all letter substitution ciphers, at an Easy level. Each letter of the alphabet is substituted by another letter, and no letter is encrypted as itself.To start out on these puzzles, look for the most frequent letter in each cryptogram — you’ll find it’s almost always E. Single-letter words will be A or I.

Cryptography offers you the chance to solve all kinds of puzzles. Use basic solving techniques to crack substitution ciphers, including the Freemason’s cipher. Encode your own messages, decode incoming communications, and have fun trying to figure out conspiracies, codes, and cryptograms!Cryptography 101: Basic solving techniques for substitution ciphersIt doesn’t matter whether a cryptogram presents you with letters, numbers, arcane symbols, lines and dots, or weird alien squiggles — if you’re asked to replace each letter in the alphabet with another symbol, you’re dealing with a simple substitution cipher.

With a Caesar Cipher, the cipher alphabet wraps around the plain alphabet. For example, if there is a +1 shift, A=B, B=C, C=D, and so on to Z=A. Once you have figured out one or two of the letters in a Caesar cipher, the rest of the encryption will fall out easily. Tricky Caesar Cipher 1.When this encrypted letter was deciphered by American codebreakers during World War I, it resulted in a death sentence for the man mentioned in it.

The Freemasons have long used ciphers to encrypt their ceremonies and messages. Both the ciphers on this page use the classic Masonic Cipher, which is also known as the Pigpen Cipher, as the alphabet is written into a series of grids, with some passing resemblance to pigpens. Despite appearances, these ciphers are all simple substitution cryptograms, so the frequency of each symbol will give you clues as to which letters are E, T and A.

Caesar Ciphers are also known as Shift Ciphers — yes, you guessed it, the alphabet is shifted along by a set amount to create the cipher. This is an encryption method that was used by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, hence the name. Once you’ve figured out a few letters, you can easily write out the rest of the encrypted alphabet, and read the cryptogram.

There are many distinctive ciphers used by the Freemasons in times past. The Cypher of the Rose Croix (used in Tricky Masonic Cipher 1) is one of these old sets of symbols. Sometimes Masonic ciphers have keywords. A keyword is written into the top of the ‘pigpen’ grid, with two letters per box. The remaining letters are then written into the rest of the boxes in pairs.

Some of the cryptograms on this page have keywords. To discover a keyword, write out the plaintext alphabet, and then the ciphertext alphabet beneath it. If there’s a keyword, you’ll find it within the sequence of letters in the cipher alphabet. For example, if A is encrypted as H, B is encrypted as A, and C is encrypted as T, this gives a keyword of HAT.

Although these symbol cryptograms may look extra tricky, they are basic substitution ciphers. You can apply the principles of letter frequency analysis to work through these puzzles. To start out, look for the most frequent letter (or symbol) in each cryptogram — you’ll find it’s almost always E. Single-letter words will be A or I.

Solving cryptograms is a great way to stay mentally fit! Studies have shown that working puzzles of any sort, especially challenging ones, keeps you mentally agile and on the ball. These benefits can help you no matter what your age! Tricky Symbol Cipher 1. This More Code message is an adaptation from the eulogy of George Washington delivered by Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee.