In November 1736, Martin Folkes, then vice-president of the Society, suggested the Copley grant be converted to "a medal or other honorary prize to be bestowed on the person whose experiment should be best approved...a laudable emulation might be excited among men of genius to try their invention, who in all probability may never be moved for the sake of lucre". On 7 December 1736, the Council of the Royal Society agreed to Folkes' proposal, passing a resolution that the annual Copley grant of five pounds (roughly equivalent to £986 in 2023) be converted to a gold medal "of the same Value, with the Arms of the Society impress’d on it," to be gifted "for the best Experiment produced within the Year, and bestowed in such a manner as to avoid any Envy or Disgust in Rivalship". John Belchier was the first to receive the new award in 1737; due to delays in approving a medal design, however, the medal, designed and struck by John Sigismund Tanner of the Royal Mint, was only presented to Belchier in 1742. Gray and Desaguliers received their medals retrospectively.