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5 Shi Jin - Hunan Province Food Stamp
| Issuer | Hunan Province Food Bureau |
|---|---|
| Year | 1978 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Pink-toned paper printed in dark rose-red ink with a central vignette of Changsha Railway Station, Hunan Province. The denomination in Chinese characters appears above and below the central image, flanked by a decorative border. Provincial title inscription and date printed in bold characters. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in dark rose-red ink on plain paper, the reverse bears three numbered clauses of usage instructions under the bold heading 使用说明 (Instructions for Use). A circular official red seal stamp is applied at centre, with the numeral 5 repeated in diamond cartouches at top and bottom within a guilloche border. |
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| Comments |
Chinese provincial food stamps (粮票) occupied a strange bureaucratic middle ground — they were not currency, but without them, currency alone could not buy grain. Hunan's provincial series were valid only within the province, distinct from national-issue stamps redeemable anywhere in China. The 1978 date places this squarely in the final years of the Maoist rationing apparatus, just before Deng Xiaoping's agricultural reforms began dismantling the coupon economy from 1979 onward.
The grain ration system was formally abolished nationally in 1993, after which provincial food bureaus destroyed most of their remaining stocks. Hunan examples from this period survive almost entirely as collector rescues, not archived specimens.