A letter written by Franklin, about the same time, to John Jay, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, is of much interest in this connection: To the Honourable John JAY, Passy, May 10, 1785. Secretary for Foreign Affairs. - - - - - P.S. The striking of the medals being now in agitation here, I send the inclosed for consideration. _A thought concerning the Medals that are to be struck by (p. xv) order of Congress._ The forming of dies in steel to strike medals or money, is generally with the intention of making a great number of the same form. The engraving those dies in steel is, from the hardness of the substance, very difficult and expensive, but, once engraved, the great number to be easily produced afterward by stamping justifies the expense, it being but small when divided among a number. Where only one medal of a kind is wanted, it seems an unthrifty way to form dies for it in steel to strike the two sides of it, the whole expense of the dies resting on that medal. It was by this means that the medal voted by Congress for M. de Fleury cost one hundred guineas, when an engraving of the same figures and inscriptions might have been beautifully done on a plate of silver of the same size for two guineas. The ancients, when they ordained a medal to record the memory of any laudable action, and do honour to the performer of that action, struck a vast number and used them as money. By this means the honour was extended through their own and neighbouring nations, every man who received or paid a piece of such money was reminded of the virtuous action, the person who performed it, and the reward attending it, and the number gave such security to this kind of monuments against perishing and being forgotten, that some of each of them exist to this day, though more than two thousand years old, and, being now copied in books by the arts of engraving and painting, are not only exceedingly multiplied but likely to remain some thousands of years longer. The man who is honoured only by a single medal is obliged to show it to enjoy the honour, which can be done only to a few and often awkwardly. I therefore wish the medals of Congress were ordered to be money, and so continued as to be convenient money, by being in value aliquot parts of a dollar. Copper coins are wanting in America for small change. We have none but those of the King of England. After one silver or gold medal is struck from the dies, for the person to be honoured, they may be usefully employed in striking copper money, or in some cases small silver.