Our Services

Chiffriermaschine offers sales, valuation and brokerage services for museums, dealers and private collectors of cryptologic objects. Whether you are looking to sell, or to expand your collection, do get in touch.

Chiffriermaschine is run by Patrick Hayes, a specialist in cryptologic history and a professional auction valuer. With institutional and private clients across Europe and North America, Patrick has brokered the sale of £150,000 worth of cryptologic objects by private treaty (as of August 2022). He also provides valuations for private collections and inspects cryptologic objects for Bonhams Auctioneers on a contractural basis.

Patrick has uncovered many unusual and rare cryptologic objects. Cipher machines (such as the famous Enigma machine), wartime German codebooks, as well as codebreaking-related objects count among his rare finds.

Here are some highlights (click to view):
Farewell signature book presented to GCHQ employee F.J. Bentley OBE for service between 1951 and 1968
Enigma I machine A00162/bac/43E
Set of three rotors with 'D' wiring for an Enigma K machine used by the German Condor Legion and rewired in 1944 for use by Croatian Home Guard. Possibly rewired again as Enigma KD rotors for the German Abwehr (military intelligence).
Set of Enigma bigram tables for use by the German Kriegsmarine
Collection of manuscripts attributed to the Austrian Cipher Bureau
German merchant vessel codebook 'Tauschtafelheft für den Schlüssel H'
Farewell signature book presented to GCHQ employee F.J. Bentley OBE for service between 1951 and 1968

Signed by many GCHQ employees, including several prominent former Bletchley Park codebreakers. Among the signatures include the codebreakers Hugh Alexander, Leslie Yoxall, Shaun Wylie, H.C. Ricketts, Denis V. Mardle and Alan Rogers. As GCHQ employee records are secret information, the existence of this document is unprecedented. The authenticity of the signatures has been confirmed by a former GCHQ employee. It is now in the collection of Crypto Museum, in the Netherlands.
Enigma I machine A00162/bac/43E

An interesting late-war three-rotor Enigma I machine used from 1943 to 1945 by the German military and then post-war by the West German border police (indicated by its green box). The machine is one of just 2600 that were produced by Ertel-Werk für Feinmechanik in Munich, indicated by the serial number suffix '43E'. The sale of this Enigma machine was brokered between its owner, a private collector in Germany, and Enigma Museum in the United States. It was exhibited at the Eighth Annual Enigma Forum and Flea Market at the Friedrichshafen Ham Radio Fest 2022.
Set of three rotors with 'D' wiring for an Enigma K machine used by the German Condor Legion and rewired in 1944 for use by Croatian Home Guard. Possibly rewired again as Enigma KD rotors for the German Abwehr (military intelligence).

A very rare and unusual set of Enigma rotors (serial number K590D, rotors II, IV and VI). Discovered among communications equipment disposed-of in Germany at the end of the War, it has a rather convoluted history. According to production records it was issued to the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. Afterwards, the machine were returned to Germany and rewired on 7 March 1944 for use by the Axis-aligned Croatian Home Guard (Kroatischen Landwehr — Hrvatsko Domobranstvo). Two of the rotors (V and VI) were produced separately to rotor II as extra rotors. Whilst records make no mention of the existence of rotor VI, these extra rotors were supposed to have been destroyed in 1944, but for unknown reasons were not. These are the only known surviving Enigma rotors issued to the Croatian Home Guard. The existence of spaces for nine turnover notches and the existence of rotor VI suggest that the rotors may have never reached Croatia, and may have been rewired yet again as Enigma KD rotors. However, this theory has not been confirmed. This set of rotors was acquired for the Chiffriermaschine collection.

View object record
Set of Enigma bigram tables for use by the German Kriegsmarine

An extremely rare set of Enigma bigram tables issued in February 1945 to the 65th Vorpostenflotille, stationed in Norway. Printed with water-soluble ink to prevent them falling into the wrong hands, sets of Enigma bigram tables are extremely rare. The sale of this document was brokered between its owner, a private collector in Norway, and a private collector in the United States.

View on the Crypto Museum website
Collection of manuscripts attributed to the Austrian Cipher Bureau

A very rare find, this collection of manuscript is an important record of codebreaking efforts by the Austrians in the interwar period. Among the manuscripts, which include many diagrams and handwritten notes, there is information about the breaking of early cipher machine codes — such as Enigma and Kryha. There is also a rare German translation of William F. Friedman’s ‘The Index of Coincidence and Its Application in Cryptography’, made by Austrian codebreaker Andreas Figl in 1938. The only other example of this translation is a photostat copy held by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). This collection of documents was acquired for the Chiffriermaschine collection.

View object records
German merchant vessel codebook 'Tauschtafelheft für den Schlüssel H'

An extremely rare Kriegsmarine codebook issued in 1940, containing bigram substitution tables for the Schlüssel H hand cipher used by German merchant ships (Handelsschiffe). In his book Unravelling Enigma, Maurice Freedman writes, "Another important hand cipher, Schlüssel H, called 'Merchant Navy' at BP, was broken early in the War and although not producing intelligence of any great moment, was of considerable value, early in 1940, in showing a sceptical Admiralty that Naval Section could do something - demonstrating that not all enemy wireless signals were inviolable". Due to orders for this sensitive material to be destroyed after use and the well known part played by captured codebooks in the codebreaking story, German codebooks from the Second World War, especially naval material, are extremely rare and highly sought after. This codebook was acquired for the Chiffriermaschine collection.

View object record
Enquire now about Chiffriermaschine Services. See Stories to find out more about our sales, valuation and brokerage services.