CALEB COPE AND MAJOR ANDRE Publique Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 10, March 3, 2002, Article 11
CALEB COPE AND MAJOR ANDRE
In previous E-Sylum issues we have discussed important
historical coins such as Lt. George Dixon's lucky gold coin,
recovered from the wreck of the Hunley, the Confederate
submarine which sank in Charleston harbor on February 17,
1864 (see Volume 4, Number 22, May 27, 2001).The catalogue of the March 15, 2002 sale of R. M.
Smythe & Company features another remarkable piece,
a Portuguese 10 Reis copper coin with the hand-engraved
inscription, "Caleb / Cope / 1745".The coin had been given to Cope by his father at the
age of nine - 1745 was his birth year. In 1775 the
thirty year old Cope "risked his neighbor's wrath and
offered his home to a 24-year-old British Officer and
prisoner of war, John Andre." Before Andre departed,
Cope reportedly gave him the curious coin."Andre was eventually exchanged and returned to the
British side. He was made Adjutant-General of the
British Army in North America in 1779. In September
of 1780, he conducted the negotiations between the
British and American General Benedict Arnold, who
was in charge of West Point." Andre was later
captured by the Americans and hung near Tarrytown,
NY [on October 2, 1780 - Editor].The information above is from Smythe's lot description,
which was in turn adapted from a talk given by historian
William Hensel on June 23, 1904 in Ephrata, PA, near
Cope's hometown of Lancaster."As Caleb Cope's great-grandson Porter F. Cope
listened to the Ephrata lecture, he found it amusing.
Only a few months before ... he learned "that the
noted numismatist Henry Chapman had purchased
a strange coin from a collection in Brighton, England,
the previous summer. The coin had a most unusual
inscription "Caleb Cope 1745". Porter knew the
coin's significance, contacted Henry Chapman, and
obtained the coin. At the end of Hensel's lecture,
Porter Cope "stood up and slowly removed the
legendary coin from his pocket in front of the
astonished audience. After a lapse of 128 years,
the coin had come home."For more information, see the Smythe catalog,
lot 1005B. The catalogue is available online at
http://downloads.smytheonline.com/For a biography of Andre, see
http://www.ushistory.org/march/bio/andre.htmA painting by American artist Thomas Sully titled,
"The Capture of Major Andre", 1812 is discussed here:
"The Capture of Major Andre"- 2002-03-03
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