2 Shi Jin - Coarse Grains Food Stamp Hua County, Henan

Chinese county-level food stamps (粮票) of this type were administrative rationing coupons, not currency, though they functioned with equal rigidity in daily life. The national grain rationing system, introduced in 1955, persisted well into the reform era — Hua County's 1986 issue dates from a period when urban ration books were already being phased out in coastal provinces, while inland Henan counties still depended on them entirely. The "coarse grains" designation (粗粮) is the telling detail: it distinguished lower-grade staples like corn and sorghum from fine grains, and recipients often had little choice in which category their allocation fell.

Hua County, in northern Henan, had suffered severe famine during the Great Leap Forward. That history shaped how seriously local bureaus administered even small-denomination coupons like this one through the 1980s.