There might be thousands of computer-related stamps, if you’re not too fussy with definitions: see https://www.computer-stamps.com/
Or perhaps see this Wired article Computers on Stamps… lots of images but unfortunately many broken.
Here’s Charles Babbage from the 1991 Scientific Achievements set
Thanks very much for your work!
I don’t think that the coin designer, who probably had designed many other coins, made up own code. So I now assume that he used snippets of existing codes of Zuse.
The 0 and 1 field is maybe difficult, but the top field maybe just missing 1, 2 or 3 tracks (due to low space). And at least that might be deciphered. The question is where are the missing tracks and how many. Maybe it’s not ASCII. And it must makes sense. Maybe it reads “KONRAD ZUSE”.
The o and 1 field might miss some 0 and 1 and is maybe not 7/8 bit ASCII.
That is a fair assumption and if I were to throw binary code on a coin, I’d definitely embed some clever message, not too obfuscated to decypher.
Even with the assumption that there are missing bits, the total would be 220, again, not a number divisible with 8. That’s not to say it MUST be divisible with 8, but it is rather uncommon for uncompressed data to end with an incomplete byte.
But, let’s try to have another angle at this. Supposing that the text would be uncompressed and it would end-up at some point (regardless of the number of bits) to represent characters in a successive pattern (i.e. A = x, B = x+1, C = x+2 and so on), we should be able to observe that pattern in regular text because, as Shakira would say: “Bits don’t lie”.
So, I have taken a sample english text, converted it to binary and looked for pattern 110, for instance. And here is that pattern with differend bit paddings:
You will see here that the 110 pattern tends to align when the padding reaches 8, and forms a nice vertical pattern in most cases.
Now, looking at our binary data searching for the same pattern (starting with a minimum padding of 5, since the alphabet requires at least 26 characters which need at least 5 bits of data):
Now, you see that the same pattern is all over the place, doesn’t align nicely as the text before did.
While this is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the data, by this alone, I am pretty sure that if the binary sequence contains textual information, it is encoded or compressed differently.
Also, given the work of Mr. Zuse, I’d expect that the binary code contains actual machine instructions instead of characters, but this too is a speculation.
I see 10 rows of 22 bits. Zuse’s first machine, finished in 1938, was the Z1, with 16 registers of 22 bits for binary floating point numbers. So, these are probably numbers: sign, exponent, mantissa. “(Donald Knuth attributes the invention of normalized floating-point numbers to Zuse)”
I think he also had infinity or NAN in there as well.
Why would someone show 4 tracks when the first computer/calculator already had 8?
The first “computer” was the Z3. And that had 4 large rows of buttons. Not sure what medium that used.
The shown pattern of the punched tape/film might be found somewhere.
It resembles the Z1 punched film which had holes not in straight rows but every other row could have a hole in between like the 5 on a cube ⚄
Like the bow in the middle of the coin.
So we don’t know from which computer that is. Maybe not even a Zuse computer at all.
I now think that both codes are random data to just show 2 different representations of bits.
But 22 bits are at least correct.
Maybe I have to check patents and other publications.
Not sure if the coin designer is still alive. At least he must know that.
Some time ago I found some other non Z-computers like the SM1
I don’t know what it is, but I can count 40 columns of 4 bits, so we have 160 bits to play with. But it could be 44 columns if there are blank columns - and the pattern is not quite central which implies to me there are blanks.
Nice video:
There is also no guarantee that what we see is really contiguous bits, they could be left ends of some rows.
That being said, the coincidence of the 22 bits with Zuse floating point numbers is intriguing.
On a slightly off-topic point, I think it would have been of far greater effect if the central part of the coin would have been thinner and instead of zeros and ones they’d punched small holes respecting the binary pattern.
Now that would’ve been one cool coin in my book. 
So the input (keyboard) has 4 columns (x10 lines) and the output has 4 columns as well.
Maybe the top tape is related (the output) of the 0/1 field.
I found this interesting image of a Z3 simulator (I only have found the image)
Z3-Nachbau-2001
On the right are 2 fields. The left has 7+1 columns, but only 4 are used. The right has 14 columns. Both together makes 22 bits. So the 8/4 tracks are part of it.
Is it input or maybe a memory location, address or the exponent?
Probably the exponent. Although 7 bits, only 4 digits are entered in the emulation below.
It’s also the question where is the top (left or right of the coin)
I found another Windows emulator.
Zuse Z3
From the readme
S EEEEEEE MMMMMMMMMMMMMM
| \ \ \
| \ \ ------------------ Mantissa, 14 bits.
| ------------------------- Exponent, 7 bits.
±--------------------------- Sign, 0=positive, 1=negative.
The Z3 understood 9 different instructions. These included 2 instructions
for accepting input from the user and displaying results, 2 for reading and
writing the memory array and 5 arithmetic instructions. The oritinal
instruction names may have some meaning in German, but not a whole lot of
meaning to English speakers, therefore the assembler included with the
simulator will support both the original opcodes as well as a set of opcodes
that are more familiar to English speakers.
Lu Read Keyboard 01 110000 IN
Ld Display Result 01 111000 OUT
Pr z Load Address z 11 zzzzzz LOD
Ps z Store Address z 10 zzzzzz STO
Lm Multiplication 01 001000 MUL
Li Division 01 010000 DIV
Lw Square Root 01 011000 ROOT
Ls1 Addition 01 100000 ADD
Ls2 Subtraction 01 101000 SUB
Hm… “P” seems to be a transfer instruction from and to memory and “L” is interacting with what seems to a be buffer register. These are also encoded in the first two instruction bits.
So we get:
L group (01):
u … peripheral in – ??? (Um-?)
d … peripheral out – Datum? Durchgabe? (announcement)
m … multiplication – Multiplikation / multipliziere
i … division – “d” is already taken, use “i” for Division / dividiere.
s1 … addition – Summe (sum)
s2 … subtraction – as above
w … square root – Wurzel (root, common short term for square root or Quadratwurzel)
We may have to refer to Zuse’s writing for “u” and “d”.
I guess, “d” must have been conceptually rather fundamental in order to assign it to the output instruction and not to division.
“w” somewhat proves that this is German and not, say, Latin (which would be “r” for radix).
BTW, this is borderline interesting, since the scholarly correct way of naming things would have been in Latin or maybe in Greek. So this is Zuse as an engineer (as opposed to a scholar).
P group (1x):
r … store (transfer to memory) – registriere or Register (register)?
s … load (transfer from memory) –??? (maybe just an iteration of “r”?)
I’ve no conclusive idea, what “L” and “P” may stand for, or if there’s any inherent meaning to it, at all. These may be generic expressions, as well.
We may associate “L” with Leistung (work), since there’s actual work done by these instructions, while “P” may be associated with a greater Plan (plan, program) as in Plankalkül. But I understand these neither as compelling nor conclusive.
I’m currently checking some original Zuse documents. I still haven’t found everything. I wonder why it’s so difficult.
L might stand for Locherhebel (punch lever) or Locher. There are arrows u,d (up down? but I found for Lu u=Übersetzen (see image 2). But for Ld Rückübersetzen , mabye De-… The result is decimal (like the input).
Konrad Zuse Internet Archive - Item id axU28RMNhK9wdaXV
Above original schematics. Note the bit pattern, note the manual change of the bit order. Note that there’s an additional instruction Ende: Pu.
Abt. = Abtaster, Abtastmagnet?
By coincidence (searching for PLC stuff, again Google can’t find specific 70s stuff) I found a DIN standard 61131-3. Although it’s a modern PLC standard it derives from an older 80s standard that derives from an even older one.
I found all 4 characters: S setzen (set) R Rücksetzen, U Vorwärtszählen, D Rückwärtszählen.
Siemens STEP 7 still has S, R but instead U ZV and instead D ZR.
I think these are old electronics symbols and not invented by Zuse.
S and R are still on a symbol for flip-flops.
S+R are the same in English and German.
U+D not. So obviously English (counting) upwards , downwards (matching the arrows).
Maybe I will check some more manuscripts from Zuse (Z3 only) but I think there are too many pages and hard to read handwritten pages.
I found another manuscript, hard to read
L is obviously Leitwerk (easier to read on earlier pages, also on my pic 2)
U übersetzen
D Rückübersetzen (not stated here what D stands for)
Konrad Zuse Internet Archive - Item id YjBueilZYhDx7qs
This image linked below, full schematics is also very interesting ,
P probably stands for Planwerk.
The D from Rückübersetzen might come from Drehwähler
L Leitwerk here is Leitrelais.
Also detailed description of the holes on the film (far right) and more info
It has been before our eyes the entire time!
The punched film seen in the document above (Film como soporte digital | IDIS) isn’t in 8 tracks, but in pairs of 4 tracks, the lower one slightly offset. The legend gives it away:
1 1 0 0 Abrufen Speicher Nr. 2
0 0 1 0 (retrieve memory register No 2)
0 1 0 0 Multiplizieren
0 1 0 0 (multiply)
1 1 0 0 Abrufen Speicher Nr. 10
1 0 1 0 (retrieve memory register 10)
0 1 0 0 Addieren
0 0 1 1 (add)
1 1 0 0 Abrufen Speicher Nr. 6
0 1 1 0 (retrieve memory register 6)
0 1 0 0 Dividieren
0 1 0 1 (divide)
0 1 0 0 Vorzeichenumkehr
1 0 1 0 (sign reversal)
1 0 0 0 Speichern auf Nr. 10
1 0 1 0 (save in No 10)
Mind that this not exactly like the Z3.
The text above this provides some context:
Durch die vorigen Rechenschritte stehen im Rechenwerk die Zahl e [und| in den Speichern Nr. 2 6 10 die Zahlen b c d.
Nächster Rechenschritt:
a . b + d e = - ––––––––––– -> Speicher Nr. 10 c (e ersetzt dort d)
translated:
After the previous steps, the accumulator holds the number e and memory registers 2, 6, 10 hold the numbers b, c, d.
Next step:
a * b + d e = - ––––––––––– -> memory register 10 c (e replaces d)
So it should be perfectly possible to represent this in 4 rows, like,
x. .. xx .. x. .. .x xx
x. xx x. x. xx xx x. ..
.x .. .x .x .x .. .x ..
.. .. .. .x .. .x .. .x
l2 m l1 a l6 d rs s1
o u o0 d o i vi t0
a l a d a v sg o
d t d d n r
e
or, if we want to mirror the film more closely, we’ll have to flip this vertically, like
.. .. .. .o .. .o .. .o
.o .. .o .o .o .. .o ..
o. oo o. o. oo oo o. ..
o. .. oo .. o. .. .o oo
But the latter doesn’t seem to be what the banner is doing. This seems to have the leftmost column (#0) on top, like our first version.
But, I’m not so sure that this is Z1 code, at all, since it looks like a much more complex instruction set.(E.g., there are codes with the first 3 bits set.) Still, it could be any of the Zuse machines using the 8-track (i.e. pairs of 4 track + offset) 35mm film format.
LOL, reading through these comments got me thinking of this homage to “Tron” from many years ago.
At the end, Bit sends out a “message” (“Yes, yes, no, yes, …”) I tried deciphering it, and it just came out garbage.
The Z1 had several units and I assume it’s Z1 code.
Currently the Zuse site doesn’t work.
I remember that there was a separate chapter for Zuse Rechenautomat (not sure if it’s about code or about mechanical calculators).
The problem is that the misaligned rows don’t match the code on the coin.
Interesting is the numbering, I think 8 and 128 on top when vertical
I think this 8 track film tape was used on Z1-Z4. Z5 used I think 10 tracks.
The lowest line 8,4,2, 1 should indicate storage instructions.
Zuse made booking machines in the 50s and 60s with real paper tapes.
But probably we will never find out and it’s just random data.
Perhaps then the coin has an Easter egg program of 20 instructions. A few permutations to be tried and fed into a disassembler. Probably a human disassembler.
The 0-1 field has many missing bits and even the computer is unknown.
You could get some few instructions.
So the paper tape should be easier and is more of interest to me. But 4 tracks and different as the film.
Characters are more of interest than numbers or instructions.
Searching on the Zuse site for Lochstreifen, I found the character encoding (8 tracks) called Z31- Lochstreifencode, 1 on top, GR probably uppercase, KL lowercase. There are some more including numbers
As tracks 5-8 below are similar, I focused on tracks 1-4 assuming the lower 4 rows are missing. The problem is, that there’s no character with all 4 bits punched like on the coin. Maybe there are 2 columns for one character. The first word could be DEN
Otherwise we can try to brute force.
Probably it’s a German sentence. Something like
Der erste Computer der Welt: Z1
The second character of the second word is maybe an O. Computer or Konrad.
Or maybe it helps with the 0/1 field.
