Financial institutions handle low-denomination currency like pennies by accepting coin deposits from customers, sorting them through automated coin-counting machines, and bundling them for commercial circulation or returning them to federal reserve banks. Because processing pennies often incurs handling costs that exceed their face value due to their heavy weight and low purchasing power, some industry discussions debate whether banks should encourage digital-only transactions or support legislative efforts to phase out the production of the one-cent coin entirely, similar to practices adopted by other countries.