The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority may ban motorists from using pennies.

Executive Director Jack Hartman has ordered a study on discontinuing the practice of accepting the coin that bears the image of the 16th president and favorite Illinois son, Abraham Lincoln.

Hartman is concerned that taking pennies as toll payment is neither cost-effective nor time-efficient.

Hartman worked a toll booth recently and he says motorists who tried to pay him with pennies were at least one or two short. It also apparently takes longer to process the copper-colored coins.

Toll authority spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis says about 273 million pennies are taken in annually. She says that's about two percent of the total revenue.