1804 Dollar with Copper Plug - Gallery Mint

Here's some information on this piece from Verne Roy Walrafen:

Worth MORE Than A Plugged Nickel!
So here is what I know so far... First, you take a perfectly good $50 proof 1804 dollar GMM strike and punch a hole in it! At first I thought it was a half cent sized hole but then I compared the silver cutout to a half cent and the cutout is significantly smaller that a half cent. So... I assume you then plug the hole with a copper insert you created with the same punch you just used on that nice proof silver dollar. This was not, as far as I can determine, a copper planchet already prepared for another purpose...for one thing it had to be the correct thickness to match the silver dollar. I know a coin expands when struck so perhaps the hole was the size of a "raw" half cent planchet but the size difference seems a bit much for that. Finally you strike the resulting planchet with half cent dies three times (see closeup at right.)

What I don't know is; "Why?" Oh yeah... pay attention now... you don't do this just once! You almost certainly do it at a minimum of twice because the silver cutout (shown at left) that came with this trial piece (for lack of a better term at this point) is not from the 1804 dollar used for this piece. The silver cutout is from the opposite edge of a different 1804 proof dollar (there goes another $50!) Maybe the fact this specimen split out to the left edge caused a second attempt. Although...the other piece was punched quite close to the right edge. Strange!

I don't understand how GMM could spare the resource, both already created products and manpower, unless it served some useful purpose. Perhaps training, experimenting with the materials to learn "What happens when..." or exploring new capabilities for future creations. Maybe a 1792 Voight Silver Center Cent from GMM is in our future!
Perhaps a customer ordered a plugged 1804 dollar but that is so far-out I can't guess what their thought processes might have been. If this was a special order piece I would think GMM would need a very high price to make it worth all the special effort. I did not special order this piece but bought it already created from GMM's stock.

So this is a question that will most likely have to be circulated around GMM to find the culprit who knows what's up. Why was this trial piece created? ...and... Does anyone out there have a similar piece? Maybe they have my silver cutout and I have theirs and we can trade!

And photos of Verne's specimen. This one is nice because you can fully see both Liberties on the obverse.