MICROCODE PART 1: DO THE HAY INTERNMENT CAMP BANKNOTES FIT INTO THE SOMERTON MAN CASE?

THE EVIDENCE SAYS YES..

(Updated 10th May 2020)

PURPOSE

The purpose here is to present instances of micro written words and codes associated with the Somerton Man case in chronological order and as such, this post on the Hay Banknotes is the first of a short series on this subject in order to 'set the scene' for the events of the night of November 31st, 1948 and the months afterward.

These notes contain micro written content, some of which are to be found within the design of the notes themselves and some within the signatures.

SIGNIFICANTLY, you will see that there is an example of a signature which had microcode written inside the letters of the signature, this mimics exactly the SOE Code method known as INK H which wasn't included in the SOE manuals until 1943

Let me first explain a little of the design. George, a man with previous experience in currency design, had put together a series of concept drawings of backgrounds to which he was to add intricate hand-drawn surrounds including a rectangular shape which itself included very strings of tiny numbers and letters.  Amongst the internees in the Hay camp at the time there were numerous craftsmen, artists, watchmakers, and interestingly, just one who described himself as an 'Engraver'.

HAY INTERNMENT CAMP BANKNOTES

Around the perimeter of each of the notes was an illustration of barbed wire, carefully written into the barbed wire shape you will find the words:

'WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ARE HERE' 

which repeats around the entire shape of the note.

The Hay banknotes were designed by George A. Teltscher, an internee at the Hay Internment Camp. George was one of 2500 + German Jewish males who were deported from the UK in 1941. George would have been amongst those arrested and held initially at Huyton near Liverpool in the UK where he would have rubbed shoulders with many famous Jewish people including one Klaus Fuchs, Klaus went on to be possibly the most famous Atom Spy ever. Another fellow internee at Huyton and later Hay and Tatura was a man called TIBOR KALDOR.

Tibor was to be found dead by poisoning in a Hindley Street, Adelaide, Hotel just two weeks after the discovery of the man on the beach at Somerton who had also died of poisoning but at the hands of an assassin. Please note, he was not killed by a 'spy' as such but by an assassin and there is a major difference between the two. As we progress through this series, you will read of the circumstances and of the people who it is believed were present during the final hours leading to the death of the Somerton Man.

At this point, I gratefully acknowledge the key contribution of Clive Turner in finding the very small article in the Adelaide press and in the many hours he dedicated to the follow-up work which led us to the discovery of the nature of the Hay Banknotes.

 WRITING WITHIN CURSIVE SIGNATURES

Each note was hand signed by the manager of currency, Mr. Stahl, and one of 4 co-signatures. 

42229?

A second example of  microcode in a different note

The examples below show one of the signatures and within it, significantly, you can see the presence of tiny letters and numbers. The large example immediately to the left being quite distinct as you can see in the marked-up area.

Of the techniques shown in this post, the use of micro written letters and numbers thin cursive writing is quite probably the most significant of all. It is the same technique that was used in the handwritten Verse 70 found in Alf Boxall's copy. It is also found on the code page with micro written code hidden beneath the marked over letters.

The video below clearly shows micro writing hidden in plain sight within the letters that spell out the denomination, in this case it was a Two Shilling note:

Next is probably the most significant image, it is from the TWO SHILLING note numbered 

E 39203, it shows clearly the use of micro writing actually within the cursive letter 'R' of the signature of Mr. Stahl, the Manager of the Hay Internment Bank:

42229?

The significance of the writing within the Stahl signature cannot be overstated. It is precisely this technique that was later to be used within the handwritten Verse 70 supposedly given to Alf Boxall by Jestyn in August 1945. I dot think that it was as simple as that and in PART 2 of this series of posts, we will show some astonishing new information.

ONE SHILLING NOTE CLOSE UPS.

Most importantly, the micro letters and numbers are hidden but hidden in plain sight within the shaded area of each of the larger letters:

The plates for the notes were cut at Hay camp and a local newspaper owner carried out the printing task, all, of course, with the permission of the camp commander. Several thousand notes across three denominations were produced.

CLANDESTINE COMMUNICATIONS

The notes were released in March 1942 and within weeks the plates and any printed notes were confiscated by NSW Police on the grounds that they were too similar to standard Australian currency. Personally, my view is that the police had entirely different reasons for seizing these notes and plates. What they saw was not Banknotes but a set of tutorials in 'Clandestine Communications' and, in fact they were looking for what codes if any, could be found within the individual notes.







             


Yet more code within the shaded areas of the word TWO on the left.

In a later post, we will show how this exact same technique was used in Alf Boxall's copy of the Rubaiyat









In the first example from another 2 Shilling note on the left below, you can see how the code has been written alongside each letter as shading. In the second example of the same image, on the right below you can see what appears to be additional code written at the of the letter 'O'

ONE TIME PAD?

The One-Time Pad or OTP is an encryption technique in which each character of the plaintext is combined with a character from a random keystream. Originally described in 1882 by banker Frank Miller (USA), it was re-invented in 1917 by Gilbert Vernam and Joseph Mauborgne. When applied correctly, the OTP provides a truly unbreakable cipher. It is named after the sheets of paper (pads) on which the keystream was usually printed.'

This is not to say that the Hay Banknotes were deliberately set up to act as one time pads, rather that they lend themselves to use as one time pads.

In these next images, we are looking at the rectangular surrounds of the banknotes. I have brought together the left columns and right columns of two banknotes, a 1 Shilling and a 2 Shilling note for comparison. If you look at this image very carefully you'll see that each column is different, the numbers/letters that are listed are unique for each column.

Similar images have been shown in a recent post, this time we get, I think a better image of the rectangular surround on each note which appears at first glance to be just a simple set of heavy, short lines. Under magnification we can just make out letters and numbers but, under Infrared, we see that these lines are in fact sets of 10 letters and numbers in each line.

The column of numbers 'could' be used as a one time pad. Here's an explanation from the Crypto Museum:

Here's a real example of a One TIme Pad:

You'll note that the strings or stream in the Crypto Museum example is made up of 5 numbers. It is conceivable that the first 5 numbers or last 5 numbers in each string in the Hay banknotes could have been used for that purpose.

Below is a format of a one-time pad used by the U.S. National Security Agency, code named DIANA. The table on the right is an aid for converting between plaintext and ciphertext using the characters at left as the key:

As we progress with this series of posts you will see exactly how the Hay Banknotes fit into the story of the Somerton Man.

SOME NOTES SURVIVED

Some of the 6000 +  original Hay Banknotes managed to survive the Police raid and on today's market, some are worth in excess of $12000.

Mick Vort Ronald,  an ex-South Australian Police Officer, has published a number of books on the subject of Australian and other currencies and in fact, supplied me with the high-resolution images that I have used in this and other posts.

Interestingly when George Teltscher was released, he returned to the UK by sea. The route he took was via the Panama canal which was the safest way home. This trip was unusual in that the Americans expressly forbade the passage of any ex internees via the Panama canal.

On his return, George dropped out of sight until 1946/47, it is not known what work he was doing in the years between.

With thanks to Mick Vort Ronald for images of the notes.

Part 2 of this series of posts will show some never before seen images of Alf Boxall's copy of the Rubaiyat.