The mysterious 1831 Davignon 18-R has finally been photographically documented for the first time in 2021, a whole 11 years after it was first described in Davignon's 2nd edition publication of Contemporary Counterfeit Capped Bust Half Dollars. And what an important piece is has proven to be...

I have confirmed that this variety is part of the ever-growing Ski Nose family which now includes 12 different varieties and is the 6th largest family by the number of reported varieties; I also confirmed that 1821 3-D, formerly a Singleton, now belongs to the Ski Nose family given that it shares a reverse die with this 1831 18-R variety, and this reverse die is very similar to other Ski Nose family varieties.

This 1831 18-R was originally purchased in New Hampshire. However, it is not known whether this example was the same example that Davignon originally described, or whether there is at least a second example out there waiting to be documented; let's hope there is more than one out there.

The Ski Nose family is a particularly interesting family with great research potential. It includes varieties dated 1817, 1821, 1829, 1830 and 1831. At least four different alloys and three different edge devices were used to create the planchets that were used with this family. There are also a number of different die states between the shared reverse dies. If you own a Ski Nose family variety which has a lot of the eagle feather and facial details showing, please contact me as it may be an important piece to study and fill in gaps in understanding this family overall.

All for now!

=Winston Zack