HELP - Chinese Script

[+DudleyGrunt]

I'm looking for any info on the wooden nickel below.

 

1) Has anyone seen one of these before?

2) Does anyone know who might have created it?

3) Anyone know what it says?

4) Any sort of transcription would be great, even if it doesn't make sense.

 

Feedback I've gotten so far, has ranged from "it's gibberish" to "maybe it's a puzzle" to "Japanese using Chinese characters".

 

I'm wondering if the last line might be the cachers name or the cache name if this is intended to be part of a puzzle cache.

 

I received this in a package of wooden nickels Spring1 sent me after they saw my online gallery of wooden nickels and poker chips.

 

 

You can see a larger image of the script by clicking HERE

 

Thanks!

DG

Edited February 17, 2010 by DudleyGrunt

[+buttaskotch]

I'm looking for any info on the wooden nickel below.

 

1) Has anyone seen one of these before?

2) Does anyone know who might have created it?

3) Anyone know what it says?

4) Any sort of transcription would be great, even if it doesn't make sense.

 

Feedback I've gotten so far, has ranged from "it's gibberish" to "maybe it's a puzzle" to "Japanese using Chinese characters".

 

I'm wondering if the last line might be the cachers name or the cache name if this is intended to be part of a puzzle cache.

 

I received this in a package of wooden nickels Spring1 sent me after they saw my online gallery of wooden nickels and poker chips.

 

 

You can see a larger image of the script by clicking HERE

 

Thanks!

DG

Japanese Using Chinese characters is called Kanji.

Though I can't read Kanji, it looks to be Chinese writing.

[+DudleyGrunt]

Thanks. The term "Kanji" might be helpful.

[+Chrysalides]

It's not Kanji (since that would imply Japanese, and there's no Hiragana in there anywhere). It's also Simplified Chinese characters, and Kanji has more in common to Traditional Chinese characters.

 

It look like gibberish to me. Multiple characters have the same sound. The sound doesn't mean anything to me either. It almost looks like someone is entering characters in random.

[+Castle Mischief]

It's not Kanji (since that would imply Japanese, and there's no Hiragana in there anywhere). It's also Simplified Chinese characters, and Kanji has more in common to Traditional Chinese characters.

 

It look like gibberish to me. Multiple characters have the same sound. The sound doesn't mean anything to me either. It almost looks like someone is entering characters in random.

 

Perhaps just using the character font and typing the words in english?

[+Chrysalides]

Perhaps just using the character font and typing the words in english?

Possible, though not likely.

 

Simplified Chinese is usually entered as pinyin. There are two common ways of encoding Chinese script, UTF and GB2312. Both involve using 16 bits and therefore one of the characters will have the high order bit set. I'm not sure what would come out if it is saved as such and then viewed as ASCII.

 

The first line, in pinyin (the number at the back is the tone indicator), if I'm not mistaken:

 

jing1 jie3 ming2 jin1 jing1 min2 jia1 lian2 jing1 le4

 

You can use this resource to map from pinyin back to Chinese script. I don't know of any online resource that can do it the other way around

[+AbMagFab]

Perhaps just using the character font and typing the words in english?

Possible, though not likely.

 

Simplified Chinese is usually entered as pinyin. There are two common ways of encoding Chinese script, UTF and GB2312. Both involve using 16 bits and therefore one of the characters will have the high order bit set. I'm not sure what would come out if it is saved as such and then viewed as ASCII.

 

The first line, in pinyin (the number at the back is the tone indicator), if I'm not mistaken:

 

jing1 jie3 ming2 jin1 jing1 min2 jia1 lian2 jing1 le4

 

You can use this resource to map from pinyin back to Chinese script. I don't know of any online resource that can do it the other way around

 

Whoa there... How about it's just a simple substitute cypher? I think that's all he meant.

[knowschad]

Might help to ask over in the Asia forum

[+Chrysalides]

Whoa there... How about it's just a simple substitute cypher? I think that's all he meant.

Ah, that's possible, especially with the character spacing.

 

I don't spot any recurring groups of 3 characters though ("the", "and"). I tried running the 1st couple of lines through a brute force dictionary-based substitution solver and came up empty.

[+Danbike_Lizbike]

We once did a cache that had text in Thai to be translated. Found a thai restaurant and presto had the translation.

[+bittsen]

There are several repetetive characters which suggest it's a literal font substitution. The first character appears (at first glance) to be the most repeated character. This suggests it's a vowel. (I could be wrong)

 

Based on the fonts that I have observed, I would guess that the first letter is not "A".

 

There are a couple longer words in the message that happen to not have the correct pattern to be "geocache" so you can rule that word out. But the point is that there are fewer longer words that would have a pattern to them. You could start to translate there.

 

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

[+Castle Mischief]

Whoa there... How about it's just a simple substitute cypher? I think that's all he meant.

Ah, that's possible, especially with the character spacing.

 

I don't spot any recurring groups of 3 characters though ("the", "and"). I tried running the 1st couple of lines through a brute force dictionary-based substitution solver and came up empty.

 

That's more that I had in mind. I've seen a puzzle cache with a Wingdings font substitute cypher before, that's what crossed my mind.

 

Could it be a substitute cypher that doesn't translate to English...? I'm at the wrong computer for this right now. Might give it a shot at home later.

[+Chrysalides]

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

Not sure how you would map a Chinese character to a letter by font comparison - do you have a link?

 

Based on the pattern ABCDCEABF for the 9 letter word and sifting through looking for a pattern, the two matches I found with an online tool are "canonical" and "headaches" but I do not know how comprehensive is that dictionary.

[+bittsen]

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

Not sure how you would map a Chinese character to a letter by font comparison - do you have a link?

 

Based on the pattern ABCDCEABF for the 9 letter word and sifting through looking for a pattern, the two matches I found with an online tool are "canonical" and "headaches" but I do not know how comprehensive is that dictionary.

 

I did it visually but realize that the "A" comparison was "close" but not exact.

Headaches might work in that translation. Try exchanging based on that.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

There are several repetetive characters which suggest it's a literal font substitution. The first character appears (at first glance) to be the most repeated character. This suggests it's a vowel. (I could be wrong)

 

Based on the fonts that I have observed, I would guess that the first letter is not "A".

 

There are a couple longer words in the message that happen to not have the correct pattern to be "geocache" so you can rule that word out. But the point is that there are fewer longer words that would have a pattern to them. You could start to translate there.

 

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

 

I'm surprised that you've been somewhat critical of puzzles in the past as the kind of logic you just displayed is just what you need to tackle many of them.

[+bittsen]

There are several repetetive characters which suggest it's a literal font substitution. The first character appears (at first glance) to be the most repeated character. This suggests it's a vowel. (I could be wrong)

 

Based on the fonts that I have observed, I would guess that the first letter is not "A".

 

There are a couple longer words in the message that happen to not have the correct pattern to be "geocache" so you can rule that word out. But the point is that there are fewer longer words that would have a pattern to them. You could start to translate there.

 

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

 

I'm surprised that you've been somewhat critical of puzzles in the past as the kind of logic you just displayed is just what you need to tackle many of them.

 

I never said, nor implied, that I couldn't solve problems. In fact, I'm quite adept at solving them. I just don't equate the solving of brain teasers with the physical aspect of geocaching. They don't mix as far as I am concerned.

In fact, I have solved a couple of puzzles for caches but still haven't gone to find them.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

There are several repetetive characters which suggest it's a literal font substitution. The first character appears (at first glance) to be the most repeated character. This suggests it's a vowel. (I could be wrong)

 

Based on the fonts that I have observed, I would guess that the first letter is not "A".

 

There are a couple longer words in the message that happen to not have the correct pattern to be "geocache" so you can rule that word out. But the point is that there are fewer longer words that would have a pattern to them. You could start to translate there.

 

I did notince that the first letter of the longest word appears to be "A" based on font comparisons to known Chinese fonts. Since the fonts can have subtle variances, I might be mistaken, but it does appear that way. There are 2310 words that are 9 characters that start with the letter "A".

 

http://wordnavigator.com/by-length/9a/

 

I couldn't get a chinese font to display correctly so I can't help with the translation other than giving you ideas where to start.

 

I'm surprised that you've been somewhat critical of puzzles in the past as the kind of logic you just displayed is just what you need to tackle many of them.

 

I never said, nor implied, that I couldn't solve problems. In fact, I'm quite adept at solving them. I just don't equate the solving of brain teasers with the physical aspect of geocaching. They don't mix as far as I am concerned.

In fact, I have solved a couple of puzzles for caches but still haven't gone to find them.

 

Don't get so defensive. I was paying you a compliment on your apparent puzzle solving skills. Whether or not you choose to or enjoy using them is up to you. I realize that some enjoy puzzles and others despise them. I personally like the challenge. I've solved and found about 85 puzzle caches and have solved probably 30 others (some I doubt I'll ever find). A few years ago I worked on a puzzle cache that was in an area where I was going to be traveling. I thought it would be fun to try and get a 4 star difficulty cache a long ways from home. I figured out the first stage but got stuck and didn't get the final coordinates before I left on my trip. I'll be in the same city (Johannesburg, South Africa) in about a month so I may go see if that cache is still available, see if I can solve it and find the cache.

[+bittsen]

I never said, nor implied, that I couldn't solve problems. In fact, I'm quite adept at solving them. I just don't equate the solving of brain teasers with the physical aspect of geocaching. They don't mix as far as I am concerned.

In fact, I have solved a couple of puzzles for caches but still haven't gone to find them.

 

Don't get so defensive. I was paying you a compliment on your apparent puzzle solving skills. Whether or not you choose to or enjoy using them is up to you. I realize that some enjoy puzzles and others despise them. I personally like the challenge. I've solved and found about 85 puzzle caches and have solved probably 30 others (some I doubt I'll ever find). A few years ago I worked on a puzzle cache that was in an area where I was going to be traveling. I thought it would be fun to try and get a 4 star difficulty cache a long ways from home. I figured out the first stage but got stuck and didn't get the final coordinates before I left on my trip. I'll be in the same city (Johannesburg, South Africa) in about a month so I may go see if that cache is still available, see if I can solve it and find the cache.

 

Darn missing smileys. I wasn't defensive. I was just tellin it like it is.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

I can see, perhaps, if I were going to travel to places far away, trying to sample a little of the foreign fare. Sort of like getting a little "strange" while on the road. Might as well go a little exotic while I'm at it, right?

All those other traditional caches back home aren't going to get all jealous that you hit a challenging puzzle while out of town cuz what they don't know, can't hurt them.

[+Happy Bubbles]

It's definitely not Japanese, I can tell you that much.

 

Those are Chinese characters, but they don't seem to be making Chinese words. I googled a few of them and got nothing. If "夫存国" (the last part of the bottom row) was a real word or name, it would have turned up a ton of hits on the search engine, wouldn't it?

 

The frequency of the characters is wrong, too. There are thousands of characters used in Chinese writing, but I counted quickly and saw only 31 unique characters here. Normally in Chinese you would see a greater variety of characters. In the main body of the text, excluding the lower part, I counted 23 different characters, which could mean it's a substitution for English letters, but adding in the bottom row means there are more characters here than there are letters in the English alphabet. I thought it could be a list of names with the bottom row being the title of a group or institution, but these don't look like characters normally used in names. Hmmmmmm.

[+reedkickball]

 

The frequency of the characters is wrong, too. There are thousands of characters used in Chinese writing, but I counted quickly and saw only 31 unique characters here. Normally in Chinese you would see a greater variety of characters. In the main body of the text, excluding the lower part, I counted 23 different characters, which could mean it's a substitution for English letters, but adding in the bottom row means there are more characters here than there are letters in the English alphabet. I thought it could be a list of names with the bottom row being the title of a group or institution, but these don't look like characters normally used in names. Hmmmmmm.

 

It could be characters and digits. Are there less than 37?

Edited February 18, 2010 by reedkickball

[+Castle Mischief]

It's definitely not Japanese, I can tell you that much.

 

Those are Chinese characters, but they don't seem to be making Chinese words. I googled a few of them and got nothing. If "夫存国" (the last part of the bottom row) was a real word or name, it would have turned up a ton of hits on the search engine, wouldn't it?

 

The frequency of the characters is wrong, too. There are thousands of characters used in Chinese writing, but I counted quickly and saw only 31 unique characters here. Normally in Chinese you would see a greater variety of characters. In the main body of the text, excluding the lower part, I counted 23 different characters, which could mean it's a substitution for English letters, but adding in the bottom row means there are more characters here than there are letters in the English alphabet. I thought it could be a list of names with the bottom row being the title of a group or institution, but these don't look like characters normally used in names. Hmmmmmm.

 

If it's a simple matter of using a font to create a substitution cypher, perhaps use of the shift key (uppercase letters, punctuation, etc) or numbers could create different results. I don't have any Asian fonts on this PC, but I know that the results using the Webding fonts would apply.

[+42at42]

Just wondering if you have brought it to a Chinese Restaurant yet? I think that would be my first step.

[+Castle Mischief]

Just wondering if you have brought it to a Chinese Restaurant yet? I think that would be my first step.

 

"What's it say?"

 

"It says..."

 

*SLAP!*

[knowschad]

I think it says, "Don't take wooden nickles"

[+reedkickball]

*deleted duplicate post*

Edited February 18, 2010 by reedkickball

[+42at42]

Just wondering if you have brought it to a Chinese Restaurant yet? I think that would be my first step.

 

"What's it say?"

 

"It says..."

 

*SLAP!*

 

You just have to be ready to duck.

[+kunarion]

I think it says, "Don't take wooden nickles"

Yes, it certainly does. This is a substitution cypher.

 

[EDIT] My opinion is that this coin is a clue to a geocache location. That would mean we're discussing cache puzzle solutions.

 

[EDIT AGAIN] Now I think it's NOT coords. I think there's a cacher's name. I'm still working on it.

Edited February 18, 2010 by kunarion

[+buttaskotch]

It's not Kanji (since that would imply Japanese, and there's no Hiragana in there anywhere). It's also Simplified Chinese characters, and Kanji has more in common to Traditional Chinese characters.

 

It look like gibberish to me. Multiple characters have the same sound. The sound doesn't mean anything to me either. It almost looks like someone is entering characters in random.

I never said it was Japanese, just educating people out there on what Japanese using Chinese characters would mean.

I would ask my mom to translate this but have no idea when I would see her next,

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I never said, nor implied, that I couldn't solve problems. In fact, I'm quite adept at solving them. I just don't equate the solving of brain teasers with the physical aspect of geocaching. They don't mix as far as I am concerned.

In fact, I have solved a couple of puzzles for caches but still haven't gone to find them.

 

Don't get so defensive. I was paying you a compliment on your apparent puzzle solving skills. Whether or not you choose to or enjoy using them is up to you. I realize that some enjoy puzzles and others despise them. I personally like the challenge. I've solved and found about 85 puzzle caches and have solved probably 30 others (some I doubt I'll ever find). A few years ago I worked on a puzzle cache that was in an area where I was going to be traveling. I thought it would be fun to try and get a 4 star difficulty cache a long ways from home. I figured out the first stage but got stuck and didn't get the final coordinates before I left on my trip. I'll be in the same city (Johannesburg, South Africa) in about a month so I may go see if that cache is still available, see if I can solve it and find the cache.

 

Darn missing smileys. I wasn't defensive. I was just tellin it like it is.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

I can see, perhaps, if I were going to travel to places far away, trying to sample a little of the foreign fare. Sort of like getting a little "strange" while on the road. Might as well go a little exotic while I'm at it, right?

All those other traditional caches back home aren't going to get all jealous that you hit a challenging puzzle while out of town cuz what they don't know, can't hurt them.

 

It just doesn't seem right to travel half way around the world and find hide-a-keys on guard rails. I'll probably get a bit exotic when I travel to South Africa and Tanzania next month (bought my tickets today) but I'm going the line at going commando, even if it is over 90 degrees F there now.

[+Chrysalides]

It's not Kanji (since that would imply Japanese, and there's no Hiragana in there anywhere). It's also Simplified Chinese characters, and Kanji has more in common to Traditional Chinese characters.

I never said it was Japanese, just educating people out there on what Japanese using Chinese characters would mean.

I would ask my mom to translate this but have no idea when I would see her next.

I never said you said it was Japanese, I merely said it is not Kanji (actually I was responding to the OP not to you in my post, sorry for the confusion by not quoting).

 

I can also assure you there really is nothing to translate. They're just a bunch of characters.

[+kunarion]

Any sort of transcription would be great, even if it doesn't make sense.

This should help: http://www.fontriver.com/i/maps/japanese_map.png

 

Now you can solve the text, and at least most of a nickname. There's still something missing -- numbers, I think. Since now I'm almost positive that this isn't the solution to a puzzle cache, I'd guess it's OK to discuss it here.

 

This was a language font on someone's PC. All they did to create the cypher was to type in English. So it's just a substitution cypher. Clever way to do it, though.

[+bittsen]

Any sort of transcription would be great, even if it doesn't make sense.

This should help: http://www.fontriver.com/i/maps/japanese_map.png

 

Now you can solve the text, and at least most of a nickname. There's still something missing -- numbers, I think. Since now I'm almost positive that this isn't the solution to a puzzle cache, I'd guess it's OK to discuss it here.

 

This was a language font on someone's PC. All they did to create the cypher was to type in English. So it's just a substitution cypher. Clever way to do it, though.

 

Ah, so the first letter is H.

Do I have egg on MY face!!

[knowschad]

Any sort of transcription would be great, even if it doesn't make sense.

This should help: http://www.fontriver.com/i/maps/japanese_map.png

 

Now you can solve the text, and at least most of a nickname. There's still something missing -- numbers, I think. Since now I'm almost positive that this isn't the solution to a puzzle cache, I'd guess it's OK to discuss it here.

 

This was a language font on someone's PC. All they did to create the cypher was to type in English. So it's just a substitution cypher. Clever way to do it, though.

Good catch!! I stopped after the first two words, but sure looks like, "If This" to me.

[+Chrysalides]

All hail Kunarion!

 

The first few words read : "If this coin is removed from its original" and I stopped after that.

 

If anyone gets further and it doesn't reveal any puzzle secrets, please post here.

 

And thanks to Kunarion for an interesting source for fonts.

[+kunarion]

All hail Kunarion!

hehe

 

And I did it before finding the code key, just like solving a rather tricky cryptogram. I won't type the answer -- why should I spoil the fun? But the text is... interesting...

 

That character map is missing the numbers and symbols. There must be an extended version of that character set. You need it to solve at least three digits in the code -- which I'm guessing is part of a user name.

Edited February 19, 2010 by kunarion

[+Chrysalides]

And I did it before finding the code key, just like solving a rather tricky cryptogram. I won't type the answer -- why should I spoil the fun? But the text is... interesting...

 

That character map is missing the numbers and symbols. There must be an extended version of that character set. You need it to solve at least three digits in the code -- which I'm guessing is part of a user name.

I'm glad at least "headaches" was decoded correctly from an above post

 

The numbers you're looking for are 1 year and 308. There seems to be a user who matches the name but doesn't seem very active.

[+user13371]

Maybe I missed it in the previous 30+ messages, but did anyone take the picture to a native speaker of Chinese and say "Can you read this?"

 

I did. My co-worker's reply was that it was Chinese. from "an artist who wants to show someone that he could write a very small Chinese characters on a very small piece of wood." It begins with:

 

"To my sister in Peking, People of Peking etc etc,,,,, a whole bunch of seasonal greeting. (No concrete msg but a whole bunch of slurs of word to take up the space.) Sign your husband Tung Kwok.."

 

Hope that helps.

Edited February 19, 2010 by lee_rimar

[+kunarion]

from "an artist who wants to show someone that he could write a very small Chinese characters on a very small piece of wood."

Yes, that's the same guy who wrote the manual for my MP3 player.

[knowschad]

All hail Kunarion!

The first few words read : "If this coin is removed from its original" and I stopped after that.

If anyone gets further and it doesn't reveal any puzzle secrets, please post here.

And thanks to Kunarion for an interesting source for fonts.

That sounds more like a curse to me. "If this coin is removed from its original cache, seven plagues will decend on whoever has it in his possession"

 

Maybe I missed it in the previous 30+ messages, but did anyone take the picture to a native speaker of Chinese and say "Can you read this?"

 

I did. My co-worker's reply was that it was Chinese. from "an artist who wants to show someone that he could write a very small Chinese characters on a very small piece of wood." It begins with:

"To my sister in Peking, People of Peking etc etc,,,,, a whole bunch of seasonal greeting. (No concrete msg but a whole bunch of slurs of word to take up the space.) Sign your husband Tung Kwok.."

Hope that helps.

So, which is it?

[+Chrysalides]

Maybe I missed it in the previous 30+ messages, but did anyone take the picture to a native speaker of Chinese and say "Can you read this?"

 

I did. My co-worker's reply was that it was Chinese. from "an artist who wants to show someone that he could write a very small Chinese characters on a very small piece of wood." It begins with:

 

"To my sister in Peking, People of Peking etc etc,,,,, a whole bunch of seasonal greeting. (No concrete msg but a whole bunch of slurs of word to take up the space.) Sign your husband Tung Kwok.."

 

Hope that helps.

The mystery has been revealed - it is a substitution cipher. And yes, native speakers of Chinese have looked at this.

 

The text is printed, not written.

 

The translation, while I contend that individual characters and groups of 2 characters could occasionally make sense, it is extremely uncommon for a husband to address his wife as "elder sister"

[knowschad]

Maybe I missed it in the previous 30+ messages, but did anyone take the picture to a native speaker of Chinese and say "Can you read this?"

 

I did. My co-worker's reply was that it was Chinese. from "an artist who wants to show someone that he could write a very small Chinese characters on a very small piece of wood." It begins with:

 

"To my sister in Peking, People of Peking etc etc,,,,, a whole bunch of seasonal greeting. (No concrete msg but a whole bunch of slurs of word to take up the space.) Sign your husband Tung Kwok.."

 

Hope that helps.

The mystery has been revealed - it is a substitution cipher. And yes, native speakers of Chinese have looked at this.

 

The text is printed, not written.

 

The translation, while I contend that individual characters and groups of 2 characters could occasionally make sense, it is extremely uncommon for a husband to address his wife as "elder sister"

So, you believe that it really was a Kwok, hmm?