ROT 13 on the Dragon Spinner Coin?

[+Nochipra]

We don't own one of these coins but I've heard the Dragon Spinner coins referred to as both dragons spinners and ROT 13 Dragon Spinners? Is there a difference and if there is what is it?

[+Eartha]

ROT 13 is the decryption code used to decrypt the hints on cache pages.

[+Nochipra]

Oh ok, Thanks Eartha, I didn't realize that?

[+Bhob]

ROT is short for "rotate"

It is shorthand for how a Caesar cipher is implemented

A Caesar cipher involves simply shifting the alphabet by a number of places

A shift of 1 would make A=B, B=C, and so on down to Z=A

Since the letters shifted off the bottom come back to the top, the second alphabet is said to rotate

 

ROT-13 just means that the second alphabet is shifted (rotated) 13 places

A=N, B=O, etc

This sceme has the advantage that you only need to list each letter once

(for an example, see the grid on any cache page with an encripted hint)

The top letters encript/decript to the one below, and vice-versa

This allows the table to be done with just 26 letters

ROT-13 is the only Caesar cipher for which this is possible

All of the others require listing all of the letters twice, for a total of 52 letters

 

The Dragon Spinner coins are technically able to do ROT-anything, not just ROT-13

If you line the letter of interest up under one of the tails (you will have to figure out which one), the ROT-13 decripted letter will show in the little square "window"

 

But, you could use it for ROT-5 by lining up the letter of interest under one of the dragon claws

(again, you are going to have to figure out which claw)

 

Personally, I find the Dragon Spinner coin to be more interesting as a work of art, than as a useful encription/decription tool - the window is very small and deep, making it hard to read the letter of interest

 

If you are after a tool that can easily implement ROT-anything, you would probably be better off with a LizardToadZ spinner (it is also handy for encripting/decripting Vigenere ciphers)

 

If all you want is an easy-to-carry ROT-13 encripter/decripter, there are at least a couple of choices

1. the GeoCoinClub ROT-13 coin (sold out long ago, probably difficult to obtain, usually expensive)

2. any of the various "Round TUIT" coins (some still for sale at typical prices)