G&S: The Telephone Code

The early days of the telephone were that of discovery. It was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor, who wanted people to say "Ahoy!" when they answered, but then decided to say "Hello" thanks to Thomas Edison. Besides making phone calls, people who subscribed to the phone company could listen to concerts and operas. But many were still suspicious of the operators who could possibly listen to their private conversations.

Such men were W.S. Gilbert, who shared conversations over the phone with Mr. Richard D'Oyly Carte. They discussed financial figures from their productions in a secret code. Each number 1-9 and 0 were replaced by a letter of the alphabet based on the word:

F = 1
A = 2
V = 3
O = 4
U = 5
R = 6
I = 7
T = 8
E = 9
S = 0

So 365 pounds would be VRU. Easy enough. Write out a math problem featuring this code and challenge your friends to decode it.