10 Shi Jin - Coarse Grains Stamp Zhengzhou City, Henan

Chinese municipal grain ration stamps (liangpiao) were a product of the planned economy's distribution infrastructure — not currency, but functioning as a parallel exchange medium for basic foodstuffs. Zhengzhou's Grain Bureau issued stamps like this one to control allocation of coarse grains (culiang), a category that typically covered maize, sorghum, millet, and sweet potato flour, as distinct from fine grains such as wheat and rice. The distinction mattered: coarse grain rations were larger in volume but lower in status, and urban residents frequently attempted to convert their culiang allocations into xiliang through informal exchange.

The state's grain rationing system, introduced in 1955, was not fully dismantled until 1993. This 1982 stamp sits near the midpoint of that system's slow collapse under market pressure.