Ron Guth: In keeping with a trend established a couple of years earlier, the mintage of the 1865 Three Cent Silver dropped to a mere 8,000 circulation strikes. The survival of high-grade examples of this date is similar to that of the higher-mintage 1863, but it is harder to find comparable quality examples of the former. This drops the median grade of Mitn State 1865s to the MS63 to MS64 range, with fewer MS66 examples. At the very top of the condition ladder, the 1865 is represented by a single PCGS MS68.
Survivors included fully struck, unclashed examples and frosty, lightly clashed examples. Prooflike examples exist, which creates confusion because Mint State examples are decidely more rare than Proofs.
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