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5 Fen Shanxi Province First Prison
| Issuer | Shanxi Province First Prison |
|---|---|
| Year | 1958 |
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| Composition | Paper (brown) |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in dark blue ink on brown paper, with a decorative border of repeating diagonal hatching and corner ornaments. Institution name and voucher title inscribed at top; denomination 伍分 (5 Fen) in two ornamental oval frames at centre, flanked by usage restriction legends at left and right. Red serial number printed below centre; date 一九五八年十月 (October 1958) along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse entirely unprinted, presenting a plain brown paper surface with no text, vignette, or decorative elements. |
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| Comments |
Prison-issued scrip in the People's Republic was never a relic of the past — it was active policy. Labor reform facilities (laogai) in the 1950s issued their own internal currency to control inmate purchasing within prison canteens and cooperatives, severing any connection to the broader money supply. Shanxi Province First Prison's 1958 issue falls squarely within this system, a period when laogai enterprises were being formally integrated into state production quotas under the Great Leap Forward's industrial mobilization.
These notes almost never left the facility. Survival depends entirely on whether a prisoner kept one hidden at release.