Maisto talonai, Vasaris 1993

Lithuania's 1993 food ration coupons — "maisto talonai" — were a direct consequence of the supply disruptions that followed the Soviet collapse and the early transition to a market economy. They were not currency in the strict sense but circulated alongside banknotes as a state-controlled rationing instrument, limiting purchases of staple goods during a period when shelves were genuinely bare and price liberalization had outpaced supply stabilization.

Spindulys AB in Kaunas had a long history of printing sensitive documents for Lithuanian state institutions going back to the interwar republic. Their involvement here was practical — domestic production avoided hard currency printing contracts abroad at a moment when Lithuania had very little of either.