Secret Message Decoder Turns Back The Clock

Fri., Oct. 17, 1997

Associated Press

Captain Midnight is gone, but the post office is preserving a bit of nostalgia from his era: the secret message decoder.

The new decoder isn’t a ring, but it does the job by revealing secret messages hidden on some U.S. postage stamps.

You normally can’t see the hidden image, but the post office is selling decoders to interested people. For $4.95 collectors can get a special lens that reveals the hidden message when placed over the stamp.

“It was done primarily as a anti-counterfeit measure, but we knew that collectors of all kinds would enjoy it as an interesting design element as well,” said postal spokesman Barry Ziehl.

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Secret Message Decoder Turns Back The Clock

Jesse Tinsley

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