Altoid Tin Projects

One web site that I really enjoy reading on a regular basis is the Art of Manliness. There are great skills you can learn on a variety of topics. One article I found recently is on Altoid tin projects. 

Altoids are those "curiously strong" mints that come in an old fashioned lidded tin. Being about 2" x 3", it is a conveniently sized container for all sorts of stuff. The article lists  bunch of projects that some very creative people have come up with from survival kits to racecars to guitar amplifiers. 

I designed my own modest little kit for kid cryptography. Below is a listing of the contents in case you want to try it out yourself. 

The centerpiece and most expensive component of the kit is a secret decoder ring. I confess that I always wanted to have one of these myself. Although I grew up in the 80s, my father got me into the old time radio programs from the Age of Radio - programs like the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, the Shadow, and Fanny Brice. One of the promotions back then was a secret decoder ring which you could use each week to decode a secret message. 

There is a small company called Retroworks (www.shopretroworks.com) where you can buy high quality decoder rings. I highly recommend them! Not only do they have code medallions but also code rings you wear on your fingers. There is also a full range of transliteration style rings. These rings show you what each letter of the English alphabet looks like in languages such as Klingon, Tolkien Elvish, and even Aurebesh!

Anyway, the ring I bought uses a simple code technique called the Cesear Cipher where you simply shift each letter a certain number of places. So an A could be coded as D, and so forth. 

I did a web search and found other transliteration pages like for Norse runes, Greek and Morse Code. I printed these out on card stock and made sure they could be folded up easily. I also made up some 2x3 inch cards with instructions on how to write in invisible ink and how to make paper look old. 

I also added a pencil stub and some q-tips for the invisible ink technique. There is still room for more things in my tin but I figured this was a good start. 

I made up three tins - one for me, one for my son, and one for one of my nephews. (they are about the same age). They will get them during Christmas as part of a treasure hunt activity. I will write secret codes on strips I paper and hide them around the house. One message will lead to the next message. When they get I the end I have a "treasure chest" with some small things like mini flashlights and stuff. Hopefully they will like it!