Coin that kicks off Super Bowl is made in Florida
ORLANDO - With Super Bowl 58 only days away have you ever wondered where the NFL flip-coin that kicks off the big game is made?
Believe it or not, it's Florida where one company has been creating iconic Super Bowl memorabilia for decades. Just recently it sent this year's batch off to Las Vegas.
"The game doesn't start without the flip-coin," said Vincent Bohbot, executive vice president at Highland Mint in Brevard County.
Highland Mint has been producing the official NFL Super Bowl flip-coin for 31 years.
"When we're watching the game, and they're doing the coin toss, that's when you look at it, here we look at it all day long, coins are being flipped, coins are being minted. But then when you see it at the game, that's when you're like, hey, that's our coin, that's our company that's doing this," said Bohbot
Each coin is numbered, "0-0-1" will be used to decide who kicks off and who receives and if there's overtime they use coin "0-0-0".
"We usually do heads with the Super Bowl logo on it and tails would be the two teams," said Bohbot.
This year's batch was sent over just last week to be used by the referee Sunday in Las Vegas. In total, 10,000 coins are produced. One hundred are sent to the NFL, the rest are for sale.
The 140-member staff at the mint produces many other coins and memorabilia, from melting the metals to packaging it all up.
"Everybody takes pride in this, how can you not? Whether they're football fans or not, everybody likes to say that we're part of the biggest game of the year," said Bohbot.