½ Shi Jin - Grain Food Stamp Zhongjian County, Guizhou

Chinese grain rationing coupons (粮票, liángpiào) were administrative instruments, not currency, though they functioned as a parallel exchange medium throughout the planned economy period. Zhongjian County in Guizhou — a mountainous, historically food-insecure region — issued its own local stamps redeemable only within county boundaries, meaning they had zero value the moment you crossed into a neighboring administrative zone. That hyper-local restriction is exactly what makes county-level issues scarce: low print runs, narrow circulation, and no incentive for anyone outside the county to preserve them.

The official stamp serves as the sole security feature — a deliberately low-cost solution for a ration system that was already being phased out nationally within a decade.