What on earth is this? (Found outside my house)

[brooklyn66]

Yesterday came home to find a bit of folded-up paper wedged in a crack in the fence wall bit (pavement goes right past it). Opened it up to find 2x2p coins inside unrecognisable writing - see pic!
What is this?

There are communities that believe that these can cause harm to individuals, split up husband and wife and even death. They even report it to the police.

100% it's by someone with dementia or mental health issues, that's all. Nothing creepy, just a bit sad.

DP reckons it's t-line shorthand as he studied it at uni. He also said that it's impossible to read someone else's shorthand so can't quite make out what it says.

This is so interesting says she placemarking.

which does have vowels! They just aren't typically marked in adult written text

Yes - of course it has them speech. But as you have said - NOT in written text, which is what we are looking at.

You should immerse it in salt water under the light of the full moon, then dry it out, wait 5 days, burn it and sprinkle the ashes at a crossroads at midday

During that time if you see a lone magpie you must offer it a worm

Why hasn't the DM picked this up already? The one time they could be useful spreading the word.

DP reckons it's t-line shorthand as he studied it at uni.

Its definitely not T-line shorthand, Pitmanscript or Pitman shorthand. Its nothing like any of them - even taking into account the various ways outlines could be used by individuals.

It could be one of a few pagan spells.

It could be the copper is used to remove a witches magic because they are thought to be casting unwanted spells. The copper is always folded inside paper with their own witches script. It can only be read by those who are taught the same script so usually other members of the same coven.

In contrast it could also be a witches spell to bring wealth hence it being coins and not just a piece of copper. The same applies about the script, its a specific script for a particular witch/coven.

Someone either thinks you need some help with money/wealth or they think you are causing them harm by casting your own spells.

Oh heck, I watched a YouTube channel called "Unexplained Mysteries" and now I've got the right royal heeby jeebies. There's loads of videos about witches on there but I haven't got the guts to watch any of them. I watched one about some sea monsters and that was enough for me!

Odin a coven?! OMG, this is bloody terrifying.

OP if you see these gals wandering around you know someone lit the black flame candle!!

ShowMePotatoSalad A coven is somewhere to go and chat to like minded individuals about the general day to day crap in life.....so basically mumsnet but in person down the pub with alcohol and food and Gavin with his funky smelling incense sticks he insists on wafting around the place

Place marking! This is creepy!

Ok so I just showed DH and he reckons it's a substitution cypher code of some sort.
He has written various programmes to decipher them over the years and says he will run the photo through them once we get home from DS's clubs.
I don't hold out much hope, but you never know!

christ this has given me chills

i reckon it's kids. we used to play at being witches until fairly old (not play, like it was all terribly grown up and occult... we had watched the craft you u no!!) and we'd totally do something like this...

Dh thinks he knows what it is, but is just examining the 'letters'.

MetalMidget

I am an expert decipherer of handwritten doctor and it makes no sense to me, though the fountain pen would lead me to the conclusion it could be a consultant or possibly a registrar!

Isn't it a Jewish custom to do something like this at Passover?

Nope. We hide unleavened bread behind the sofa for children to find. Much more normal

Yeah my money's on taweez and I would guess that copper coins are either a protection against evil or for luck. I think if it was a curse it would be something yukkier. Why it ended up in your wall is weird. It may be there are more than one around the area to perhaps offer protection to someone?

I agree with Odin, Paganism varies so much. Some Wiccans have covens and their own secret alphabet so that notes or spells cannot be deciphered by anyone outside the coven. Its also common to incorporate very old practices, which could explain the coins. Other Pagans just celebrate the seasons and light lots of candles so its difficult to say for certain as there are no set beliefs or practices that apply to all. It does seem likely though.

...or coins as a charm for generating wealth?

I still think it should be read from top to bottom with the red line at the top.

Having looked closer, I think it is based loosely on Japanese hiragana. Have a look at these comparisons. You can identify a few individual characters clearly. Others can be guessed, but are very scribbled.

I can also see a lot of repetition, so I think it's the same thing repeated (at least in the larger block of text).

However I'm not sure that it forms actual words and sentences. It could just be random scribbles of repeated characters. Possibly still hypergraphia as PP's have mentioned.

Very interesting! I'm a bit sad that we'll probably never know.

totally agree with you theclaws that this may be south indian script. mind you, i cannot see the image too well even zooming in from my phone but looks like tamil to me, not curly enough to be kannada or malayalam but could well be southern indian. not urdu, don't think telugu either.

I don't find it 'creepy' at all