1803 Draped Bust Large Cent, Well Worn, Grade/Opinions?

I'd say you're right about FR-02 for the obverse, but there's so much central detail on the reverse I'd want to give it an AG-03.

As for attribution, I'm by no means proficient in attributing large cents. But doing some comparisons, the 3 in the date doesn't have the small date look (the point at the top should be further right than the curve at the bottom). And there's something about the word "CENT" on the reverse - the gap between E and N looks larger than normal. I don't know what to think of it.

But for $15? Decent, whatever the attribution.

S-260:


(images from coinfacts.com, courtesy Superior Galleries)

Yours is definitely not S-260. Note the orientation of the 3 above, with the knob almost touching the 0. Your coin has a very wide gap between the 0 and the knob on the 3.

But what about this?

This is listed on ebay as a Large Date, Large Fraction, although it is attributed as an S-261. The gap between the 0 and the 3 looks the same, and even with your slightly-out-of-focus image, I think I can make out the die crack on yours between the 8 and the 0, same as this one.

Then again, you have coin in hand, whereas I'm looking at slightly out-of-focus images. Can you get some sharper photos?

Nevertheless, still well worth the $15.

Looks like small date large fraction. Flat top 3, and pointed 1 on fraction. F02, and $15 is a decent price.

$15 to own a 212 year old piece of Americana? Especially in the form of American Coinage from a time where that cent might have been rattling around in a founding father's pocket on his way to the pub. I would pay $15 all day for this one.

Because of what dsfreeworld just stated so eloquently.

I've got a number of 3-digit and a very few 4-digit coins to look pretty in slabs, and I've got many, many more sub-3-digit coins to fill my albums and look pretty in 2x2's. 80% of my collection is responsible for perhaps 20% of its value.

I find myself looking at the album coins quite a bit more often. I could buy a slabbed 1803 large cent in XF or better if one was on the market, but then it would just sit in my safe in its slab box and get ignored most of the time. This coin, I can actually take it, put it in my hand, play with it, show it to little kids, and start conversations with it without giving my insurance agent a case of the scares, or putting a "Rob Me" target on my back when I show it to someone. Who knows where it's been? It must have been very well-loved to get to such a state. Perhaps it was a Penny Whist coin and Sheldon played it when a 1803 Small Date/Large Fraction was called. You never know.

My slabs have their places, and my pocket pieces and raw coins and lowballs and culls and "why would you buy it?" coins have theirs. I have a 1966 Mustang and a 2003 Mach 1 Mustang. Sure, I could have had the 1966 restored to some insane level of "better than new", but what would be the point? So I could stare at it and trailer it to car shows? My Mach 1 is a 30k mile survivor, and I drive the wheels off it every day to work. It's not an investment-quality car like the 1966 could be if I dumped $20k more into it, but it gets people's attention, kids love to talk about it, it's a great conversation starter, and I can enjoy it without worrying about it dropping 50% of its value because I got a rock chip in the hood paint. The 1966 is driver-quality restored, 66k mile 3 owner survivor and it gets the wheels driven off it when weather permits (no A/C in a Texas summer is brutal.) I'll leave "expensive and pretty" for slab boxes and car shows, and have very few reservations at all about letting someone drive the '66 or hold a well-worn 1803 large cent.

That should pretty much sum up why I would spend $15 to buy that coin.

well put

It's either FR-2 or AG-3. I'm leaning more towards FR-2.