1000 Grams - Southern Counties Flour Stamp Sichuan Province

Chinese county-level grain bureaus issued commodity ration stamps denominated by weight rather than currency value throughout the planned economy period, and this Nanbu County example is typical of the local administrative apparatus that persisted well into the reform era. By 1988, national grain rationing was already being dismantled in coastal provinces, but inland Sichuan counties like Nanbu were slower to transition — local bureaus retained the authority to issue their own stamps, and the denominations reflected actual flour allocations rather than market prices.

Nanbu County sits in the Jialing River basin, historically a surplus grain area. The stamp's redemption value was essentially bureaucratic: flour, not cash, and only at designated state granaries within the issuing county.