The 181 ballpoint was made between 1971 and 1976. It formed part of the broad production range of those years and was turned out in large numbers, for Montblanc was still a full-line manufacturer at the time, making everything from the plain writing instrument up to the Meisterstück; only from 1991 did the firm position itself exclusively as a maker of luxury goods.
The model accordingly still turns up frequently on the second-hand market, prices are low, and an equivalent replacement is easily obtained. There is therefore no collector's value worth mentioning, though as an everyday pen the 181 remains perfectly usable. One striking feature is the rather small, short clip compared with later models, which grips poorly in a pocket; lost or mislaid examples are correspondingly common in this series.