---
title: cipher ring
date: 2011-04-16
---

I was thinking about buying a [pigpen cipher ring] from [14th place]. I
stumbled upon it while looking for a ring that could be used for a
vigenère cipher.

![cipher ring from 14th place](2011-04-16.cipher_ring_pigpen.webp)

It's a bit hard to see, but the lower section has the letters N to V,
the rest of the alphabet carries on around the back. The top section has
the symbols used in a [pigpen cipher].

I've been slightly put off buying one as I can't really understand what
cipher version they have used for the ring. The mason "standard" [pigpen
cipher] listed on wikipedia doesn't seem to match the images on 14th
place's web site at all:

![pigpen cipher from wikipedia](2011-04-16.cipher_ring_key.webp)

The example from 14th place's website is the phrase "NO POST", which
they state becomes this:

![they claim this spells 'NO POST'](2011-04-16.cipher_ring_nopost.webp "or does it?")

However, if you follow the wikipedia version, it's "PM JMKR".

Below is what I can work out for certain from the image of the ring:

![filled in sections](2011-04-16.cipher_ring_filled_in.webp)

In my mind, the blanks might be filled in something like the below,
given the bottom to top, left to right way the square on the right was
filled in:

![best guess as to the rest](2011-04-16.cipher_ring_best_guess.webp)

I don't know why they would choose fill out the letters like this
though, it really doesn't make much sense, given the [left to right,
top to bottom conventions] of most of the western world. The version on
wikipedia makes much more sense (to me at least).

I'd be interested to find out where the 14th place version came from.

[pigpen cipher ring]: http://14thplace.com/pig%20pen%20decoder%20ring.htm
[14th place]: http://14thplace.com/index.htm
[pigpen cipher]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigpen_cipher
[pigpen cipher]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigpen_cipher
[left to right, top to bottom conventions]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_to_right#Directionality