500 Grams - Noodle Stamp Hanting District, Shandong

Chinese local food ration coupons of the reform era are among the most underappreciated ephemera in notaphily. This 500-gram noodle stamp from Hanting District — a county-level area within Weifang, Shandong — was issued by the district Food Bureau under the grain rationing system that the central government had maintained since the 1950s. By 1991 the national ration infrastructure was already being dismantled province by province, making late-issue district-level coupons like this one short-lived instruments, often redeemed in small quantities and rarely preserved.

Shandong abolished its urban grain rationing system in 1993, so this coupon had at most two years of functional life.