1852 Silver Three Cent Trime

IMO it's a VF-20 or VF-25.

If you want to grade coins yourself purchase The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins.

If you look at the first "S" in STATES you will notice that the letter, the field, and the rim are all merged into each other. That's a heavy degree of wear, which certainly excludes the coin from any MS or AU grading category. Similarly, the inward points on the central star at "9 o'clock" and "3 o'clock" have practically disappeared.

Unfortunately, the "Photograde" picture for MS61 is quite bad, and misleading.

I'd say VF-20, possibly details from an old cleaning. The scratches I think are acceptable for a coin this small with this much wear.

It can certainly take a lot of time to learn grading and to become proficient at it. I think the ANA Grading guide book is a great start, but the one thing that really got me up to speed was the ANA Summer Seminar classes on grading, I've taken 3 of them over the years and 2 on Counterfeit Detection from the 9 total courses I've attended over the years. Next up is to look at a lot of coins, Auctions are a great place to do this. But the downside is you need to be close to an auction house to attend preview viewing. Los Angeles, New York, or Dallas for the big companies (Stack's/Bowers, Heritage, Goldberg's, Legend, Kagin's, etc.), or attend a coin show where an auction is being held and previewing is offered. Looking at many coins over time will enhance your skills and teach you things some books never will, like how certain years in a series is always struck nice or poorly, or how the blank planchets come (useful in early and colonial coinage).

Hands on lots and lots of coins is something you can't replicate with photos or books only. Also finding a mentor that is near you in person that can help tremendously, I was lucky growing up, I had many such folks around me.

Some other good books to read on grading are found in this CCF thread, http://goccf.com/t/438875#3781510

P.S. Don't feel too bad as the 3 cent silver trimes are some of the toughest of all the US coins to grade well, even for experts.

I agree with @westcoin. The more coins you inspect in hand, especially less common issues like the trime, the better you'll get at grading. If you have the opportunity to attend a coin show, get some opinions from some dealers before you consider paying to have it graded at a TPG. Sending it in for grading would be an expensive way to get a grading lesson.

The photograde pictures are correctly graded, but very weak strikes.

Does anybody want to know the tell for high AU/MS?

Look at the edges of the right side of the C on the reverse and notice the tiny fins. Below about AU53, they're gone.

I'd give it a VF-30. As Westcoin well said, there is really no substitute for actual hands-on experience. But until you aquire that experience, the ANA Grading Standards book is a great help.