500 Grams - Food Stamp Huojia County, Henan

Chinese county-level grain ration coupons of this type were administrative instruments, not currency — they entitled the bearer to purchase a fixed weight of grain at the state-controlled price rather than at the open market rate, a distinction that mattered enormously in 1986 when the dual-price system was creating serious arbitrage pressures across the rural economy. Huojia County, a small agricultural district in northern Henan, would have issued these through its local grain bureau as part of the centrally mandated rationing apparatus that had been in place, in various forms, since the 1950s.

The system was abolished nationally in 1993. Most coupons were destroyed or discarded when they became worthless overnight, which is the main reason county-level examples from smaller jurisdictions survive in such small numbers.