GetCurrencyInfo returns 0 CurrentAmount

[fail2reap]

The following code attempts to store the characters name and current count of Prismatic Manapearls into table a once it recognizes that the add-on has been loaded.

The issue I am having is that when iterating through the table, or even just after getting the value, it always returns CurrentAmount as 0. As a test I also iterated through all currencies and their CurrentAmount values, and surprising they were all 0.

Is the CurrencyAmount loaded at a later time?

local frame = CreateFrame("FRAME"); 
frame:RegisterEvent("ADDON_LOADED"); 
frame:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_LOGOUT");

function frame:OnEvent(event, arg1)    
    if event == "ADDON_LOADED" and arg1 == "MyPearls" then
        if PearlCount == nil then
            a = {};
        else
            a = PearlCount;
        end

        CurrentAmount = select(2, GetCurrencyInfo(1721));
        a[GetUnitName("player", false)] = CurrentAmount;
        print(CurrentAmount); -- to test its contents

    elseif event == "PLAYER_LOGOUT" then
        PearlCount = a; 
    end
end

frame:SetScript("OnEvent", frame.OnEvent);
SLASH_HOWMANYPEARLS1 = "/pearls";

SlashCmdList["HOWMANYPEARLS"] = function()
    for name, pCount in pairs(a) do
        print(name, " -- ", pCount)
    end
end

Thanks for any info you can provide.