Credit for correctly interpreting the plugged dollars of 1795 goes to Kenneth Bressett, whose research was published in the proceedings of the 1993 Coinage of the America’s Conference on "America’s Silver Dollars." Bressett also found an 1817-dated reference to a similar procedure at the mint in Lima, Peru whereby "the dollar is then put under a screw which has a pointed instrument in the end of it, which is screwed down and pierces a hole in the dollar sufficiently large to receive the pin; then it is placed under another screw with a smooth end, which completely fastens the pin in the coin; they are then passed into another room where they are coined." Similar plugs, used to enhance the weight of coins that had been clipped, are seen in silver coins from Latin American mints dating to the late 17th century.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part II Auction, where it realized $705,000.