10 000 Grams - Southern Counties Rice Stamp Sichuan Province

Grain ration coupons issued by county-level bureaus proliferated across China well into the reform era, surviving long after the national food rationing system began its gradual dismantling in the mid-1980s. Sichuan's local bureaus operated with considerable autonomy, and county-grain certificates like this one from Nanbu were functional administrative instruments — redeemable at designated state distribution points, not transferable between counties, and essentially worthless the moment the issuing bureau's quota cycle closed.

By 1988, national grain coupons were already being phased out in coastal provinces. In inland Sichuan, the system lingered. Nanbu County's continued issuance that year reflects the uneven pace of market liberalization across the interior.