Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Amanthea 25 July 1810 (Chas. P. Coppin, Lieut. R.N.) fitted with contemporary ribbon brooch, dark toned, nearly extremely fine £6,000-£8,000

Sotheby, January 1977 and July 1981.

Approximately 23 clasps issued for ‘Amanthea 25 July 1810’. Charles P. Coppin is confirmed as Lieutenant aboard the Weazel 18, at the capture and destruction of 31 Franco-Neopolitan transports and other vessels under the batteries of Amanthea, on the Calabrian coast. Only 7 medals with this clasp recorded on the market, two of those being held in museums.



Charles Pitman Coppin was born in London on 9 November 1789, He was aged 11 when he entered the Navy in Oct. 1800 as Midshipman, on board the Flora 36, Captain B. Kendall, guard-ship at South Yarmouth; and afterwards served for seven years with Captain Richard Hussey Moubray in the Maidstone and Active frigates, chiefly on the Mediterranean station, where he was present at the passage of the Dardanells and destruction of the Turkish squadron at Point Pesquiez in February 1807. While next serving in the Weazel 18, Captain Henry Prescott, in which vessel he was confirmed a Lieutenant on 8 March 1809, Mr. Coppin contributed to the defeat of a French brig of 20 guns; assisted in capturing, besides innumerable other vessels, L’Eole French privateer, of 14 guns and 140 men, after a gallant action of an hour and 30 minutes, 25 December 1809; co-operated in the defence of Sicily, when threatened with invasion by Murat; and, in company with the Thames 32, and Pilot 18, was engaged in action, 25 July 1810, with gunboats and batteries at Amantea, where a large convoy was captured and destroyed. His last appointments were - in November 1810, to the Canopus 80, flag-ship at Palermo of Rear-Admiral Charles Boyles - 24 October 1812, to the Tuscan brig, Captain George Matthew Jones, employed in cruising off the Western Islands - 10 February 1814, to the Zephyr sloop, Captains Thomas Cuthbert Hichens and Richard Creyke, stationed in the Channel, whence he invalided in January 1815 - and, 5 July 1821, to the Iphigenia 42, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Sir Robert Mends on the coast of Africa. In 1822 Lieutenant Coppin was placed on half-pay.