50 Grams - Fine Grains Stamp Zibo, Shandong

Chinese grain ration coupons operated as a parallel currency system enforced by the hukou household registration framework — you could only redeem them in the administrative unit that issued them. Zibo, an industrial city in central Shandong built largely around ceramics and petrochemicals, maintained its own municipal-level grain bureau with independent allocation authority. This 50-gram denomination targets a single steamed bun's worth of flour, the smallest practical subdivision in daily rationing use.

National grain rationing was phased out in 1993, making 1991 issues among the last produced before the system's collapse. Bureau-level coupons from prefecture cities are considerably harder to find than provincial issues.