50 Shi Jing - Fine Grain Food Stamp Jiaozuo, Henan

Chinese local grain rationing coupons operated entirely outside the banking system — these were administrative instruments issued by municipal and provincial grain bureaus under the centrally planned allocation system that governed food staples from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Jiaozuo's 1983 series was valid only within the city's own distribution network, unusable even in neighboring counties, a restriction that made cross-border travel genuinely complicated for ordinary workers.

The "fine grain" (细粮) designation matters: it distinguished wheat flour and rice allotments from coarse grain rations, and access to it was tied to household registration status and work unit classification.