Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Shi Jin - Food Stamp Chengdu City, Sichuan
| Issuer | Chengdu City Grain Bureau, Sichuan Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1981 |
| Type | Vouchers |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain light grey field enclosed by a fine blue diamond-pattern border running the full perimeter. A central text panel headed 使用说明 (Instructions for Use) contains three numbered clauses in Chinese. A circular red official seal bearing a five-pointed star is impressed over the text at centre. The numeral '5' appears in red at both left and right as underprint elements. |
| Reverse lettering | 使用说明 1、只限在本市境内使用。 2、本票不得买卖、伪造、塗改和掉换其他票证。 3、注意保管，遗失不补。 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
China's nationwide food rationing system, in place since the mid-1950s, required urban residents to present grain coupons alongside cash for any purchase of staple foods. These were not currency — they had no monetary value and could not be exchanged for anything other than the specific commodity and quantity printed on them. Crucially, most were issued at the municipal or provincial level and were non-transferable outside their issuing jurisdiction, which created a rigid geography of daily subsistence.
By 1981, the system was already fraying at the edges as agricultural reform accelerated under Deng Xiaoping's policies, but local bureaus continued issuing coupons for several more years before the national phaseout concluded in 1993.