1 Shi Jin - Hebei Province Food Stamp

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.