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10 Shi Jin - Food Stamp Jiangyou, Sichuan
| Issuer | Jiangyou County Grain Bureau, Sichuan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1980 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 100 x 44 mm |
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| Obverse description | The upper portion carries the title inscription 江油县购粮券 in black Chinese characters across the top, flanked on each side by the numeral 10 in red. To the left, a black intaglio-style vignette renders a multi-storey building set behind an arched stone bridge reflected in water, surrounded by trees. To the right, the denomination 拾市斤 appears in bold red characters within a pale blue cloud-shaped guilloche cartouche. At the base, a decorative red letterpress border band incorporates rosette ornaments at each corner, with the numerals 10 repeated at the sides and the date 1980 centered in an oval frame. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Official seal |
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| Comments |
Chinese county-level grain ration coupons of this period were not currency — they were administered entitlements, issued under the unified grain procurement and distribution system that governed food access in the People's Republic from the 1950s through the early 1990s. A household's allocation was calculated annually by the local grain bureau based on registered population and work unit classification. The coupons themselves had no exchange value outside their issuing county, which is why provincial and national-level food stamps commanded far more practical utility during the rationing years.
Jiangyou, in northern Sichuan, was a significant industrial center by 1980, home to major steel production — the local grain bureau would have administered rations across a mixed urban-rural population under tight supply controls. The official seal is the only security feature because counterfeiting a local coupon offered almost nothing: it could not be spent elsewhere, and grain stations knew their own stock intimately.