5 Kilo - Fine Grains Stamp Tangyin County, Henan

Grain ration coupons issued by county-level bureaus were a direct product of China's planned distribution system, which persisted in rural areas well after urban rationing had begun to loosen. Tangyin County, in northern Henan near Anyang, would have used coupons like this to manage local grain allocations under the state procurement quota system — a mechanism that remained legally binding on farmers through the late 1980s, even as market reforms were dismantling equivalent structures elsewhere.

By 1987, these county-issued scrips were already anachronistic. National grain rationing was formally abolished in most urban centers by 1993, but the administrative apparatus at the county level often ran years behind policy.