½ Shi Jin - Sichuan Province Food Stamp

Chinese provincial food stamps (粮票) were not currency but state-rationed entitlements, issued under the planned economy to control grain distribution. Sichuan's Bureau administered one of the most populous provinces in the country, and its grain ration system ran continuously from the late 1950s through to the early 1990s, when market reforms finally made the coupons redundant. The 1973 date places this squarely in the later Cultural Revolution period, when commodity rationing remained a central tool of economic control.

Half a shi jin — roughly 25 grams of grain equivalent — is an unusually small denomination, suggesting fine-grained rationing of supplemental allocations rather than staple household rations. These fractional coupons were typically issued to adjust for rounding in monthly household calculations.