250 Grams - Cooking Oil Stamp Jingzhou town, Hubei

Chinese local commodity ration coupons of this type — issued at the township level for specific goods like cooking oil — operated entirely outside the formal currency system but were legally binding within their issuing jurisdiction. The Jingzhou Town Food Bureau in Hubei had the administrative authority under China's residual rationing framework to issue these coupons well into the 1990s, even as market reforms were dismantling the national ration system. By 1993, grain and oil coupons were an anachronism in most urban centers, but township-level bureaus in interior Hubei were among the last to relinquish control.

The official red stamp functions as both authentication and cancellation-prevention — a low-tech security measure that was entirely standard at this administrative level.