They probably issued them when 1c and 2c machines started appearing. I heard that in the Chicago area casinos did not need to go down to 1c when they first became popular because of the intense customer demand in the market. Many had gone to 2c machines and did not install 1c machines at first. Many casinos fixed the issue of pennies by tokenizing machines (making them pay out in $1 tokens, hand pay for the balance). TITO's fixed everything.