0.5 Shi Jin - Coarse Grains Food Stamp Hebi City, Henan

Chinese local grain rationing coupons of this type were administrative instruments issued under the state's unified grain procurement and distribution system — not currency, but functionally indispensable. The "coarse grains" designation (粗粮) is the key detail here: these coupons entitled the holder specifically to non-staple rationed grains such as corn, sorghum, or millet, separately tracked from fine grain (细粮) allocations like wheat and rice. Hebi, a coal-mining city established only in the late 1950s, had a heavily industrial population whose grain rations were managed with particular rigidity by the municipal bureau.

1980 sits right at the edge of the reform period — within two years, household responsibility systems would begin dismantling the rationing apparatus that made these coupons necessary.