The pole is weak, and the same device punch used for the letter I in LIBERTY was also used for the digit 1 in the date (I795). A later state of this obverse die was used in the C-5a/5b and C-6a/6b pairings. Rev: Single leaf at the top of each branch in the wreath, four berries in each branch, the letters H in HALF and N in UNITED are repunched. There is a berry in the wreath at each of the ribbon bows, and a tiny jagged die break is present in the denticles outside the letters ED in UNITED. This die was also used in the C-2a/2b pairing.

Cohen-1 is the only die marriage that corresponds to the Lettered Edge, With Pole Guide Book variety of the 1795 half cent.

This issue represents a distinct type in the early half cent series, the Small Head variant of the Liberty Cap, Head Right design. The device punch for Liberty's portrait — attributed to John Smith Gardner, as above — was used for all half cent obverse dies prepared through the end of the Liberty Cap series in 1797. The punch included Liberty's portrait and the cap, but not the pole, which had to be hand cut into each working die — something that was not always done. Planchet stock for the 1795 Lettered Edge variety is quite good, the blanks made from sheet copper rolled out from ingots.

Popular for type purposes, the C-1 variety vies with C-6a as the most plentiful of the date, and it is more readily obtainable than C-2a, the only other Lettered Edge die pairing of the 1795-dated issue. As the only die marriage that corresponds to the Lettered Edge, With Pole variety, of course, the inclusion of a 1795 C-1 half cent is required for completion of a half cent collection by Guide Book variety. Although Manley states, "Many high-grade specimens of this variety are known, including some Mint States pieces," the latter are rare in an absolute sense and probably number on the order of just a dozen or so coins

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part III Auction, where it realized $141,000.