Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1892 — Cryptograms by Stamps. [ARTICLE]

Cryptograms by Stamps.

Secret correspondence by means of postage stamps might very easily be carried on, according to Notes and Queries. A postage stamp eon be stuck on each of the four corners of an onveiope in at least twelve different positions, forty-eight in aIL These twelve different positions can be repeated on quite eight to ten other points of the envelope. If it is square and of good size, ninety-six to 130 in all. This will give us. say, 150 different modes, easily distinguishable one from another: of applying a stamp on an envelope. Let each one of these different positions or modes—or as many of them as are waffted—represent a word or a sentence, and let these words or sentences be tabulated so as to form a code, such at is used by those who telegraph to very distnul parts of the world, and tho system of correspondence is complete. If adopted—and I dare say it has already been adopted—it would, I fear, be principally by lovers, but it might evidently be used as a cipher that could not possibly be found out unless the code were laid hold of.