Unlike the other Draped Bust dollar variety of this year, the die states of the Centered Bust marriage evolved quickly. The most notable break is seen within Liberty's hair, where this state shows a skyscraper-shaped piece missing from the die right of her bow. On the reverse, a variety of light cracks are seen, including one that extends from the rim above D of UNITED to the tip of the lower left serif of the first S in STATES and into the leaves below TAT. Another crack begins above R of AMERICA and connects the tops of ICA before hitting the rim below the right ribbon end; another fainter crack parallels its course in the field below the ribbons. A serious spalling eruption below F of OF shows a significant lump directly below that letter, with other fissures nearby causing linear-shaped pieces to fall from the die. Portions of this spalling are seen near the first A of AMERICA, below the eagle's beak, and across the wing at right to the field under the wingpit. This sort of erosion and breakage on the die surface, equivalent to Bowers Die State V, highlights the troubles the Mint had with acquiring good steel and properly hardening dies in this era.

Short die life was only one of the problems the United States Mint faced in late 1795. On October 27, after less than four months in office, Mint Director Henry DeSaussure submitted his letter of resignation. As he explained the state of the Mint to President Washington, he found very little to be positive about aside from the "quantity of precious metals which have been worked up and coined; partly under the direction of Mr. Rittenhouse, party under mine." Showing a bit of ego, DeSaussure noted that "the gold, wholly under mine." Beyond that, he described nothing but problems. "It was exceedingly difficult to procure workmen," he explained, most of whom had to be trained on the job and "only recently attained that skill and facility" that enabled them to have any success at their assigned tasks. Tools were difficult to procure, and most had to be made on site. Iron was also hard to come by, resulting in the rollers "which are now in use being almost worn out." There were rarely enough dies, as "the industry of the engraver could not supply [them] fast enough for the presses." And aside from the engraver being slow, lazy, or both, the steel was low quality. The bullion that was deposited at the Mint to produce gold and silver coins "has been below our standard, and required the tedious operation of refining," or the gold and silver was "brought melted up together, and required the more tedious operation of separation."

DeSaussure complained that there were no laws against citizens owning coining equipment, and he insinuated that "a recent attempt on our dies and other implements was made with nefarious views." Gold deposits were being drawn away by private minters who produced "a debased gold coin for the West India markets" and thus "degrade our national character." The counterfeit coins these American entrepreneurs produced, imitating the commonplace half Joes struck in Portugal and Brazil that circulated throughout the United States and Caribbean, were then completely legal to produce and export. DeSaussure rightly accused the government of "negligence" on this topic, before shifting to very different complaint, regarding the failure to acquire a right of way through the Mint's property that "exposes the works to improper intrusion."

Worst of all, "the standard of the silver coin ... differs from the standard fixed by law," but DeSaussure did not feel qualified to remedy the illegal alloy "under the weighty sanctions of Mr. Rittenhouse's authority." Silver coins had been coined to a .900 standard rather than the 1485/1664 ratio of silver to alloy authorized by the Mint Act of 1792. The difference, though infinitesimal, resulted in depositors of large amounts of bullion receiving back fewer dollars than they should have, a failure that resulted in a high-profile lawsuit with Philadelphia merchant John Vaughan soon thereafter. Vaughan was friends with many high-ranking officials in the federal government, making the suit particularly embarrassing; he was Thomas Jefferson's principal wine dealer and served as the treasurer and librarian of the American Philosophical Society for decades. In May 1798, Vaughan was awarded payment on his claim of $2,260.32 by Act of Congress to make up for the shortfall, though Congress didn't actually authorize payment of the claim until January 1800.

Vaughan's problematic deposits took place between January 1 and November 21, 1795. Elias Boudinot's testimony to Congress, dated April 20, 1798, notes that Vaughan's first deposit made him "seventh in order" after the first silver deposit, more than 94,000 ounces of French coins deposited by the Bank of Maryland on July 18, 1794. Abstract E of the November 1796 Mint Report allows us to pinpoint Vaughan's first deposit: 93,298 ounces in silver ingots, deposited on January 1, 1795. On March 4, 5, and 7, 1795, Vaughan received back $20,000 in silver coin. $34,000 more followed in April, $24,000 more in June, "and so on, til the several deposits were paid," Boudinot reported. Boudinot essentially dismissed Vaughan's complaint, suggesting that the Mint didn't give him too little silver, they just mixed it with too little alloy. His argument was not met with much support.

At least some of Vaughan's deposits were paid out in 1795 Draped Bust silver dollars. There are no documents that bring clarity to the question of what varieties were included in any given delivery, which means that even annual mintage figures may have little in common with the date actually placed on the coins. Q. David Bowers suggests in his 1993 Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States that 1795-dated dollar production may have continued well into 1796. While data derived from die states and die sequences can shed some light on when a particular variety was struck, placement on a continuum does not always equate to a particular page on the calendar.

Gems of this variety are extremely rare, more elusive than the somewhat duplicative PCGS population data would indicate.