Hi Dusty… Thanks for good words regarding the page, an invitation for sure to continue with the work… I really appreciated!
Inventorying differences in the designs its quite a challenge, mainly because of inconsistencies within the same contractor and the “model” you refer to is a perfect example. Bolivar with arm came from a paint of the Peruvian artist Gil de Castro which Bolivar himself considered to be the most accurate version of him, this historical fact made that image the standard representation of Bolivar for many decades and therefore was an obvious choice for some contractor’s
Having that said, the angle and posture of Bolivar in the paint represented a technical difficulty to engrave the Die and the final result was not very attractive in comparison with other versions of the bust that were easier to accomplish and with a better final result. Only French subcontractor and earlier versions of N.S. Meyer (look to the right) chose this bust, so is fair to said that it is a version not commonly found.
Every single version of this model that I've seen have a French hallmark but with different manufacture punch (unfortunately unrecognizable), but many of them were commercialize by Fayolle Pouteau, I suppose with some kind of subcontractor arrangement.
Regarding the “arm position”, I don’t trust it as a valid variant identifier basically because the bust is an independent strike planchet that is attached to the flat oval. But the hole piece goes to the breast star (larger space) and for the medal, since the blue enable ring is a smaller frame, a hand cut was required in the bottom for perfect fitting and that the reason for the difference.
For this type of bust I prefer use as identifier, the number and model of stars in the epaulettes, the angle of the epaulettes, the number of buttons in each side of the uniform (3 or 4) or the floral arrangement in the chest.
I will write soon about rosettes, miniatures and ribbons bar of the Order… regards to all!
Michael