Omaha Postcard Puzzle

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Permalink Reply by Lyriclyinclined on June 23, 2009 at 9:15pm

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocod...

and

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=nacogdoche...

and
http://www.oldmarket.com/

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Permalink Reply by stevemedigod on June 23, 2009 at 9:19pm

I googled "pigeon cipher" and this old NY Times archive appeared... a red band on the bird...

Attachments:

• 102706563.pdf, 33 KB

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Westhaver on June 23, 2009 at 9:39pm

Do those slashes and dots at the bottom mean anything? I've tried morse and binary...but it's probably nothing.

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Permalink Reply by heyaja on June 23, 2009 at 9:49pm

That's a printing from the post office - it comes on all mail. My guess is that it's insignificant.

Thomas Westhaver said:

Do those slashes and dots at the bottom mean anything? I've tried morse and binary...but it's probably nothing.

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Permalink Reply by heyaja on June 23, 2009 at 9:50pm

Kait on IRC noticed that the tall building on the front of the card, as well as in the small box on the back, is the First National Bank of Omaha:

If you turn the postcard on its side (so the stamp is in the correct orientation) then the numbers look suspiciously like this building.

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Permalink Reply by Lyriclyinclined on June 23, 2009 at 9:57pm

manipulation of the numbers

as is :
46531968712732840256731
8431543073224041261216260
84317263146316233187126840
691928370762538156460
3483193761738360

reverse:
0638371673913843
064651835267073829196
04862178133261364136271348
0626121621404223703451348
13765204823721786913564

turned sideways:
48863
64494
53318
31193
15721
94289
63633
80377
77106
13471
22667
72323
24158
20633
84286
41310
0235
2616
5184
6276
7110
362
126
68
04
0

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Permalink Reply by Your Favorite PJ on June 23, 2009 at 9:58pm

heyaja said:

Kait on IRC noticed that the tall building on the front of the card, as well as in the small box on the back, is the First National Bank of Omaha:

If you turn the postcard on its side (so the stamp is in the correct orientation) then the numbers look suspiciously like this building.

I completely agree with this statement, I think that's our lead.

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Permalink Reply by Lyriclyinclined on June 23, 2009 at 10:07pm

reverse on its side :
00001
66463
34827
86666
35215
71122
18710
63864
75128
32312
96343
17207
30642
87121
43327
38638
2476
9109
1331
9643
6255
716
134
34
48
8

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Permalink Reply by boryalic on June 23, 2009 at 10:09pm

the words trek up the tower are sideways on this site as well http://www.trekupthetower.org/
do we have a drop?

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Permalink Reply by QtheC on June 23, 2009 at 10:14pm

Those bars are something the post office prints on mail to aid in automating routing/delivery.
If you count the bars on this postcard, there are 62 of them. I think that means it is a POSTNET barcode
representing an 11-digit deliver point code.

See: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/708.htm#wp1352817 (section 4.2)

quote:
'A POSTNET barcode can represent a 5-digit ZIP Code (32 bars), a 9-digit ZIP+4 code (52 bars), or an 11-digit delivery point code (62 bars). The information content of the barcode is based on the combination of tall (full) bars and short (half) bars. A tall bar represents "1," and a short bar represents "0."'

Thomas Westhaver said:

Do those slashes and dots at the bottom mean anything? I've tried morse and binary...but it's probably nothing.

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Permalink Reply by Hallows on June 23, 2009 at 10:18pm

I assume this is pretty obvious for the Americans, but for anyone else, here's the stamp I think

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Permalink Reply by QtheC on June 23, 2009 at 10:36pm

It looks like a legitimate postal barcode... here are the details:

Postnet barcode from the postcard image:
1 10001 01010 10100 01100 00011 01010 00101 01001 01001 00110 01001 11000 1

decode manually using table and instructions here: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5027

7 5 9 6 1 5 2 4 4 3 4 0

That is zip code 75961-5244 with delivery point code 34 and check digit 0
(the check digit is 0 because the previous digits add up to 50, and even multiple of 10)


Compare to Fredonia which has zip code 75961-5206


QtheC said:

Those bars are something the post office prints on mail to aid in automating routing/delivery.
If you count the bars on this postcard, there are 62 of them. I think that means it is a POSTNET barcode
representing an 11-digit deliver point code.

See: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/708.htm#wp1352817 (section 4.2)

quote:
'A POSTNET barcode can represent a 5-digit ZIP Code (32 bars), a 9-digit ZIP+4 code (52 bars), or an 11-digit delivery point code (62 bars). The information content of the barcode is based on the combination of tall (full) bars and short (half) bars. A tall bar represents "1," and a short bar represents "0."'

Thomas Westhaver said:

Do those slashes and dots at the bottom mean anything? I've tried morse and binary...but it's probably nothing.

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