FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Know the phrase, getting some coin? Well, that’s literally happening at the 62nd annual Florida United Numismatists Convention.
Thousands of numismatists – a fancy word for the study or collection of currency – are expected to attend.
In fact, it is one of the largest currency-collection shows in the world, and there is more than $1 billion in inventory inside the convention center alone.
So no, this isn't some spare change in the couch cushions collection -- bidders from around the world are attending the event.
The star of the show?
That's a rare penny made of glass.
"It is a 1942 experimental piece," Mark Borckardt, a Heritage Auctions senior numismatist, said about the penny. "Copper was needed for the war effort during World War II. So the mint was experimenting with different types of material to try and find a substitute for copper."
A semi-transparent penny is expected to fetch between $30,000 to $50,0000 at auction.
"There are exactly two of these still in existence that we know of. This one is intact the other is broken in half," Borckardt said.
The glass penny experiment was a failure, because not only would the glass pennies break, they were extremely hard to make.
And the coin doesn’t have Abraham Lincoln on it.
"It has a representation of liberty, a lady's head on the front, " Borckardt said. "In the back is has a wreath with the words United States Mint."
The seller of the one-of-a-kind coin wants to remain anonymous and there is plenty of mystery surrounding how it was discovered.
"(It was made) by the Blue Ridge Glass Company of Kingsport, Tennessee -- which is no longer in business," Borckardt said.
The glass penny auction wraps up Thursday, but like pennies from heaven, the convention will stay in town until Saturday.