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5 Liang - Food Stamp Chengdu City, Sichuan
| Issuer | Chengdu City Grain Bureau, Sichuan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1981 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Purple ink on white paper with a guilloche border. Title inscription at top, denomination in Chinese characters at left, and a vignette of a large dam structure at right. Year of issue printed at lower centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | White paper with purple guilloche border frame enclosing three numbered clauses of usage stipulations in Chinese characters. A circular red official seal with a central five-pointed star is applied at upper centre, partially overlapping the text. |
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Chinese municipal food stamps (liangpiao) were administrative ration coupons, not currency, yet they circulated with the practical authority of money in a system where grain purchase without a coupon was simply impossible for urban residents. Chengdu's municipal grain bureau issued its own series independently of provincial and national quotas — a layered bureaucracy that meant a Chengdu stamp was worthless in Leshan or Mianyang, even within Sichuan.
The reform era was already underway by 1981, but rationing persisted in most Chinese cities until the early 1990s. This 5-liang denomination covers roughly 250 grams of grain — a single day's supplemental ration for one adult under the standard urban allocation scale of the period.