1851-O 3 Cent Silver - You Vs. PCGS/Cac

AG-03?

Yep, ditto.

I think AG-3 as well.

KenKat - while 51O 3CS are notorious for weak strikes (something about hangovers and loud machinery? It is NO, after all) the tell-tale signs of that are weak letters on the Obverse and unfilled Orbs inside the C on the reverse. Here, all 5 of the 6 orbs that are visible are clearly present, as is the bottom bar.

Well at least the green bean says it's a really NICE AG-03

Agreed... definitely pride-of-place in my grading set

I think what you're seeing here is the third kind of grading...

First we had technical grading. We all know about market grading. But this is the third kind it's based on the real world and what would have happened to a coin in real world use. We see this in Morgan dollars where the most worn ones clearly were used in casinos and have a special kind of wear.

$0.03 silvers are very small coins which saw very hard usage for about 10 years until all of the silver disappeared during the war. In the case of the 3cs it was never to return.

And 3cs is an unlikely pocket piece.

So I think what you're seeing is being smashed around in a pocket full of half and cent coppers (big things) Half Dimes, dimes and maybe even the occasional quarters. And that kind of grading pleases me. I get that a scratch ruins a ms70 modern whatever... but it doesn't bother me for a hundred and sixty year old circulated coin.