no easy way to access column used as identity?

[bb01100100]

Hello,

I have a simple reference table (Currencies) that I want a natural primary key on, and no incrementing integer key:

object Currencies : IdTable<String>("currency") {
    val symbol : Column<String> = varchar("symbol",3)
    override val id: Column<EntityID<String>> = symbol.entityId()
    override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(symbol)
}

I create an entity object:

class Currency(symbol: EntityID<String>) : Entity<String>(symbol) {
    companion object : EntityClass<String, Currency>(Currencies)
    var symbol by Currencies.symbol
}

However, if I try to refer to the symbol column I get an error:

val currency = Currency.get("USD")

println("Symbol property on Currency object is ${currency.symbol}")

.. Error: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Model.Currencies.symbol is not in record set

I then change the companion object to refer to the entity ID (Currencies.id instead of Currencies.symbol):

class Currency(symbol: EntityID<String>) : Entity<String>(symbol) {
    companion object : EntityClass<String, Currency>(Currencies)
    var symbol by Currencies.id
}

Then I can refer to the symbol column but I need to use the awkward currency.symbol.value to get the declared string value of the column...

val currency = Currency.get("USD")
println("Symbol column is a string, but here it is: ${currency.symbol::class.qualifiedName}")
println("I need to do currency.symbol.value in order for it to work: ${currency.symbol.value}")

Output:
  Symbol column is a string, but here it is: org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.DaoEntityID
  I need to do currency.symbol.value in order for it to work: USD

How do I configure the companion object so that I can refer to the symbol property without having to know that it's a primary key and use symbol.value to get to the declared column type of String?

If I use an integer incrementing column for Id then it works fine; but in this domain model I really want to use the natural key.

Thank you!