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5 Shi Jin - Grain Stamp Ebian County, Sichuan
| Issuer | Ebian County Grain Bureau (峨边县粮食局), Sichuan Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1979 |
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| Currency | Grain Ration Coupon (1955-1993) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dark burgundy on a pale cream ground with a fine guilloche underprint, the obverse carries the county title 峨边县购粮券 in bold simplified Chinese characters across the top. The denomination 伍市斤 in large characters above the Arabic numeral 5 occupies the left field, overlaid on a rose-pink rosette underprint, while the right field bears a letterpress vignette of a multi-arched stone bridge over a river with a multi-storey civic building and tree-lined hillside behind. The year 1979 is set within a hexagonal cartouche centred in a decorative horizontal band along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark burgundy on a pale cream ground and enclosed within a fine guilloche border of wave and lace patterns. A central panel carries three numbered clauses of usage instructions in simplified Chinese under the heading 使用说明. A circular official red ink validation stamp of the 峨边县粮食局 is applied at the centre of the panel. |
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| Comments |
Grain stamps (粮票, liangpiao) were a fixture of China's planned economy rationing system from 1955 onward, and county-level issues like this one from Ebian — a small, predominantly Yi ethnic minority county in the Leshan prefecture of southern Sichuan — represent the most localized tier of that vast bureaucratic apparatus. County grain stamps were valid only within the issuing jurisdiction, making them useless the moment a traveler crossed into the next county, which was the explicit policy intention: labor mobility was tightly controlled, and so was food access.
By 1979, the system was already fraying at the edges. Market reforms were imminent, and many county bureaus printed final batches of stamps that saw limited actual redemption before quotas were relaxed. The official red ink stamp is the primary authentication device — no security printing, no serial numbering at this level of issue.