Yup, tried anywhere from almost-crushing close to near 2 inches away. Only one that reads it without physical contact is the Flipper (all of a hair-width away), or else using a MFGC I can get it as far away as “almost touching”.
Made it a ton easier to move it around while scanning, that’s the only way I got it to read at all on the PM3, was by accident.
Boxing it up now, and heading to the post office though.