Solved cryptogram
Gold does not tarnish, so a buried piece looks the same when it is dug up thousands of years on.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
Almost every other metal reacts with oxygen or sulfur in the ground and comes out of an excavation as a corroded lump. Gold does neither, which is why grave goods from three thousand years ago still gleam and why the metal became a store of value in the first place. It takes an aggressive mixture of acids to dissolve it, and that mixture was named for the fact.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 75 letters over 21 different ones, graded hard.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length75 letters, 21 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
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Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 73 letters
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