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1 Shi Jin - Hebei Province Food Stamp
| Issuer | Hebei Province Grain Bureau |
|---|---|
| Year | 1980 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Orange-toned paper with a fine wave-line guilloche underprint; dark brown letterpress inscriptions at centre giving the provincial title and denomination; a grey agricultural vignette appears in the background. Decorative corner ornaments frame the design within a ruled border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Cream-toned paper printed in dark brown with a fine guilloche underprint; three numbered clauses of usage instructions in Chinese occupy the centre field, headed by the title 使用说明 (Instructions for Use). A circular red official stamp is applied at centre, bearing a five-pointed star and provincial grain bureau legend. |
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| Comments |
Chinese provincial food stamps — liangpiao — were ration coupons issued by grain bureaus at the provincial, municipal, and county levels under the centrally administered rationing system that ran from 1955 until its formal abolition in 1993. This Hebei issue dates to the period when the system was still functioning at near-peak bureaucratic complexity, with separate coupons required for grain purchases depending on the quantity, grain type, and whether the holder was traveling outside their registered province. A shi jin is half a kilogram.
Provincial stamps like this one were not valid outside Hebei, which created a parallel black market in coupon exchange throughout the Mao and early Deng years.