The Beale Ciphers are encrypted texts from the 1800s that allegedly state the location of a $43 million treasure. As legend has it, Thomas J. Beale buried the gold in Virginia and vanished after giving the texts to a local inkeeper, who spent 20 years trying to decipher them- though he claimed to have solved only one. While many continue to hunt the treasure, others doubt Beale’s entire existence and argue that the story is a hoax. To this day, the remaining texts are still unsolved. Source Source 2 Source 3