Some famous ciphertexts (or cryptograms), in chronological order by date, are:
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{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible"
|-
!data-sort-type="number"|Year of origin
!Ciphertext
!Decipherment status
|-
| 179–180
| Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90
|
|-
| 1400s (15th century)
| Voynich manuscript
|
|-
| 1500s (16th century) (?)
| Rohonc Codex
|
|-
| 1586
| Babington Plot ciphers
|
|-
|1600s
| Borg cipher
|
|-
|17th century
| Great Cipher
|
|-
| 1730
| Cryptogram of Olivier Levasseur
|
|-
| 1760–1780
| Copiale cipher
|
|-
| 1843
| "The Gold-Bug" cryptogram by Edgar Allan Poe
|
|-
| 1882
| Debosnys cipher
|
|-
| 1885
| Beale ciphers
|
|-
| 1897
| Dorabella Cipher
|
|-
| 1903
| "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" code by Arthur Conan Doyle
|
|-
| 1917
| Zimmermann telegram
|
|-
| 1918
| Chaocipher
|
|-
| 1918–1945
| Enigma machine messages
|
|-
| 1939
| D'Agapeyeff cipher
|
|-
| 1939–1945
| Purple cipher machine messages
|
|-
| 1941
| Lorenz SZ42 machine cipher messages
|
|-
| 1944
| Pigeon NURP 40 TW 194
|
|-
| 1948
| Tamam Shud case
|
|-
| 1950(?)
| James Hampton's script
|
|-
| 1969
| Zodiac Killer ciphers
|
|-
| 1977
| The Magic Words are Squeamish Ossifrage
|
|-
|1983
|Decipher
|
|-
|1986
|Decipher II
|
|-
|1987
|Decipher III
|