What will it be, heads or tails?

Prior to the start of Super Bowl 57, all eyes will be on the coin toss that will decide which team will kick off to start the game, and which will defend a particular end zone.

The coin itself has been manufactured on Florida’s Space Coast at the Highland Mint in Melbourne since prior to Super Bowl XXVIII on Jan. 30, 1994, when Dallas faced Buffalo. If you’re wondering, the flip was “tails.”

As soon as the final whistle blows on conference championship weekend, the coins go immediately into production.

“We’ll be here in the fourth quarter just getting ready,” said Vince Bohbot, executive vice president for the Highland Mint. “The minting happens at 11 p.m. after the game because we already know the first orders that need to go out and we’re shipping product out immediately first thing Monday morning. We’ll have a crew that starts putting product together around 4 a.m. so by 4 p.m. we’ll have a maximum number of goods leaving the facility.”

That’s a quick turnaround.

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In 2022, when the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, the coin flip came up heads in favor of the Bengals, who went on to lose the game.

The last team to win the coin toss and win the game was the Seattle Seahawks in 2014, so there is a streak there.

The coin flip has now come up heads two years in a row, and it alternated between heads and tails for the four years before that.

The Highland Mint will make 10,000 flip coins, with Nos. 1-100 going to the NFL.

Coin No. 1 will be flipped prior to Super Bowl 57 on Feb. 12 to determine which team will kick and which one will receive the ball on the opening series.

In the history of the Super Bowl, the pregame coin toss has yielded “heads” 27 times and “tails” 29 times.

Highland Mint coins have come up “tails” 17 times and “heads” 12 times.

It begs the question: What was the NFL using before the Highland Mint began providing coins?

“Nobody knew what they used for the flip coin, they used quarters or whoever had whatever in their pockets,” Bohbot said in a 2022 interview. “They decided to make it very exclusive and special and so now it’s become such a big part of the pregame ceremony.”

It’s not just big because it determines who opts to get the ball first or after halftime, it’s also big because of how much money is wagered on it.

The coin flip is always one of the biggest prop bets on the Super Bowl.

The longest streak has been for “heads” — five consecutive years from 2009-13.

When it comes to Highland Mint coins, “tails” has had streaks of four in a row on a trio of occasions: 1998-2001, 2003-06 and 2014-17.

Fans of the Chiefs and Eagles can get their own coins

The flip coin is about the size of a silver dollar. After the first 100 coins are given to the NFL, the remaining 9,900 are sold to the public.

Each 1.5-inch diameter coin is individually numbered and protected in an acrylic capsule to preserve its condition and presented in a custom booklet case, allowing one to flip the center page to view both sides.

Each coin’s base metal is copper that is fine silver-plated and flash plated with 24 karat gold. The cost is $99.99.

To get yours, go to highlspanndmint.com.