500 Grams - Cooking Oil Stamp Suzhou, Anhui

Cooking oil ration coupons issued at the municipal level were a routine instrument of China's planned distribution system, which persisted well into the reform era even as market liberalization accelerated elsewhere in the economy. Suzhou — the Anhui prefecture, not the Jiangsu city — administered its own allotments independently of provincial-level coupons, meaning these local issues were strictly non-transferable outside the municipality's jurisdiction.

By 1988, national edible oil rationing was already winding down in coastal and wealthier inland provinces, but Anhui lagged. This coupon represents the tail end of a system that had been in continuous operation since the early 1950s.