1 Kilogram - Food Stamp Xinzhou County, Shanxi

Chinese county-level food coupons of the early 1990s occupy an oddly specific moment in economic history. The national grain rationing system — in operation since 1955 — was being wound down province by province through the early 1990s, and Shanxi was among the last holdouts. Xinzhou County continued issuing local commodity coupons well past the point where coastal provinces had abandoned them entirely, reflecting both inland distribution realities and local administrative inertia.

By 1993 these were effectively obsolete instruments at the moment of printing. National abolition of the grain coupon system followed in 1994.