Chinese Food Coupons : National Food Ration Coupons 1 a

National Food Ration Coupons are coupons that circulated throughout the country and therefore could be exchanged in all parts of China.
They are among the oldest coupons and were used for the first time in 1955.

Coupons having the above header, are National Food Ration coupons.
They have 2 similar inscriptions as another type of coupons, that I will show in a later post.

Coupons of this type could circulate throughout the country for purchasing food in all parts of China.

1965 National coupons

1966 National coupons

There were numerous numbers of coupons issued, and each type has several pieces in a set.
As mentionned in previous posts, the highest and lowest value of each set are often the most rare and expensive ones. All coupons in between, are relatively cheap.

The coupons in my collection are - so far :
1965 : 半  市斤  : Bàn shi jin : half a shi jin : 250g rice/grains
1965 : 壹  市斤  : Yi shi jin : one shi jin : 500g rice/grains

1966 : 半  市斤  : Bàn shi jin : half a shi jin : 250g rice/grains

1966 : 叁  市斤  : San shi jin : 3 shi jin : 1,5 kg rice/grains

1966 : 伍 市斤 : Wu shi jin : 5 shi jin : 2,5 kg rice/grains

Anyone with some basic knowledge on chinese numbers will say that 3 (san) is written as : 三,and not as 叁.
That's correct, but when it comes to comptability, banknotes, or other kinds of financial dealings, a whole other set of characters is used.
This is to prevent fraude : imagine an transaction for 30 Yuan, written the 'simple' way :

三十 (30),  but by adding 3 strokes it becomes : 五千 (5000).

The 1966 set consists of 4 values (half, one, three and five JIN) but there are 7 notes issued.
The 3 Jin has been issued on paper with 2 different watermarks, the 5 Jin has been issued on 3 different watermarks.

5 (shi)JIN - watermark stars

The note in the picture has stars as watermark (see purple indications).
This type of coupon also exists with 1982 as date.

Chinese Food Coupons : Intro 0 c

There are diffent ways to collect Chinese Food Coupons.

* By year of issue
* By state or province
* By type (rice or grain, cloths, oil, other objects, ....)
* By weight, unit, amount, ...

On each coupon, normally we can easily find this info.
I wrote about the dates already, and the cities or provinces will be explained in future posts.

Similar coupons, can be sorted out by city or province, or issuing administration.

Food coupons - city or province is marked

Central on each coupon, we find the number of kilograms, grams, units ... of each value.
Most of these units return on each coupon, therefore some examples :

Food coupons - amount and unit is marked

When there are 3 characters, the first one indicates often the amount, the last two indicate the unit.

A "shi-liang" equals 50 gram of cerials.
Coupons of 2 市两 , represent 100 gram of grains/cerials

shi liang

A "shi-jin" equals half a kilogram of cerials.
Coupons of 1 市斤, represent 500 gram of grains/cerials

shi jin

When there's a number in arabic numbers and one character, the last (only) character indicates the unit. Sometimes the unit is so obvious, that the preceding characters only can indicate a number.
In Chinese counting, 500 is written as 5 100 (2 characters) - 5000 is writte as 5 1000 (two characters),
2500 is written as 2 1000 5 100 (four characters).

This goes for 'gram' or 'ké' - often the unit is preceded by arabic numbers - sometimes with multiple chinese characters.

ké - gram

Coupons of 500 克 , represent half a kilogram.

Another common unit is "sheng", or liter.
In the old days (pre 1915) a 'sheng was slightly more then one liter. But due to standardisation, it became 1 liter in 1930.

wu (5) sheng (liter)

Coupons of 5 升 , represent 5 liters of fuel.

(市) 升 - 1 liter - 2.113 US pint - 1.760 UK pint

to be continued ...

Chinese Food Coupons : Intro 0 b

In these series of articles on the Chinese Food / Ration coupons, we will concentrate on the front side of the coupons.
As in most cases, the back side is always similar. Here there are 3 lines, some coupons only have two lines in the back.

Food / Ration coupon

Inscription Content

说明：
（1） 凭本票在西藏地区部队内部就餐或购买粮食。
（2）本票面额的每市斤为十市两。
（3）本票如有遗失不补发。

Inscription Transliteration

Shuoming:
(1) Ping ben piao zai Xizang diqu budui neibu jiu can hou goumai liangshi.
(2) Ben piao mian’e de mei shijin wei shi shiliang.
(3) Ben piao ruyou yishi bu bufa.

Inscription Translation

Instructions:

(1) This ticket may be used within the restricted military area of the Tibetan region to purchase food or grain products.
(2) When using this ticket, 1 shijin comprises 10 shiliang.
(3) Lost tickets will not be replaced.

In most cases, these coupons came in sets up to 30 different values/weights/units.

And most of them are very cheap.
However, since there was often only one coupon per person, they are more scarce then real banknotes.
Therefore, the highest and lowest value of each set are often very hard to find and prices can go up to 3-digit numbers.

Don't spend hundreds of euros/dollars in buying the coupons. They are often available for as low as 10 cents each.

In my next post, i'll go deeper into the different types of coupons.

Chinese Food Coupons : Intro 0 a

There are thousands ... the Chinese Food (and other) coupons that were issued mainly between 1960 an 1990.
Many of us have (seen) them, but if you're not a native chinese speaker, it's difficult to distiniguish them.

Chinese 'Food' coupons

In 1955, a ration system started in China P.R., when commodities were scarce, until in 1990, when there was a substantional growth of industrial and agricultural production. The coupons where introduced to stabilize the grain market and to balance demand and supply.
If you were wealthy, or poor, you could not buy more meat, grain, ... without the coupons.
There was a limited amount of grain for men*, and for women*.
Although we know the coupons now as 'food coupons' there were coupons for all kinds of foods, fuel, but also bicycles, cigarettes, televisions ... Without a coupon, you were not allowed to purchase those goods.

* the average ration for men was 15 kilograms each month, and 13 kilograms for women.

In this set of posts, I will try to give an idea of the numerous coupons that were issued, and how to sort them out.

some coupons and their characteristics

Without going too much in details, there are - in general - four things to look for on the coupons:

1 (light green):
City or Province the coupons were issued for.
There are 32 different institutes that provided the coupons!
In the following articles, I will go deeper into this subject

2 (dark green):
The year the coupon was issued - this can be in arabic numbers or chinese numbers
There are different ways to write chinese numbers :

chinese numbering system

For the date on the coupons, you have to look at the column with Lower case-writing.

3 (light blue):
The amount in items, grams, or quantities are in Upper case numbers.
Sometimes arabic numbers are also used to indicate the amounts, sometimes in both writings

4 (purple):
The unit (grams, quantities, ....) is written behind the amount.
Some of those units are used very frequently.

Some of those coupons were general coupons, other only local, some were also issued for military only.

to be continued ....

Currency Today : Venezuela 06b

Similar to most notes in the second series of the Boliváres fuertes, the higher values were in at first printed in a colour shifting ink, while the later versions in one colour ink.

I can only presume, that when inflation increased, the higher values suddenly were not that valuable anymore, and the need of printing more of those high denomination notes, resulted in lower cost printing.
However I must say, that despite of the low actual value of those notes, the printing quality is still extremely fine.

Two 2,000 Boliváres fuertes-notes, showing 2 different printings:

left B8 first  printing - right C8 later printing

Version August 2016 (left side) : serial B8

1. metallic ink to indicate the value (colour shift when tilt)

2. date of issue August 2016

3. signature F

4. broad security tread 'BCV' straight

Version August 2016 (right side) : serial C8

1. one colour for the value (no colour shift)

2. date of issue August 2016 (as printed on the note)

3. signature H

4. small security tread 'BVC' alternatively straigh and upside down

The security tread is also a bit lower on this note, but the scan might not be too clear, 

The right hand side note was cutted differently, as the text 'República Bolivariana' is closer to the border of the note. when I allign both notes, the right note (C8) shows clearly a security tread that is lower placed than the left (B8) note.

I will continue searching for more...

Currency Today : Venezuela 05b

Shortly after finishing my post on the 20,000 Boliváres Fuertes notes, I found a new variation.

Let me refer to the post "Currency Today : Venezuela 05a"

I showed 2 different types of the 20,000 - note:

However, quite recently another note came to my attention :

On the top picture, the note with serial number A8, has a colour shifting 20,000.
This goes for most notes in the first issues (2016-2017).
The later versions only have a one-colour value print.

The new note I found has no colour shifting value (1) so it is a later printing.
The date (2) confirms it was issued December 13, 2017 similar to the note in the top picture, with serial C8. Signatures (3) are also similar to the C8-note.

The serial number of the (new) note below starts with A again, so I presume, the 'new' edition restarted with A8.... and in my first post, I posted a note of a later printing, when serial numbers already started with C.
However, there's a remarkable difference in the security tread (4).
Compared to the picture above, the note should have all features of the C8 note, except for this security tread.

Finally, the printing of the flower (5) ornament somewhere holds the middle between the two other issues, the flower isn't white, but not really colourful either.

yet another proof of how interesting this hobby can be...

Mexico 1868 Hidalgo : 02b 6 cents

In this second part of the dotted 6 cent Hidalgo, I 'll present you the variations VI to X.
(for as far as I have examples of the stamps)

Variety 6 VI 

Subtype 6 for this stamp is only to be recognised in combination with a regular 6. cent.
This because the 6 and the CENT is closer to one another than the regluar stamps.

a regular 6 cent and a variation

6 cent variation detail

Variety 6 VII 

info on subtype VII is still missing

Variety 6 VIII 

For this subtype, there are 3 characteristic items

subtype 8

First is the M of Mexico, there is an additional dot or hook on the left leg of the M. (1)

subtype 8 - mark 1

Secondly, a drop is hanging at the basic line, close to the left ornament (2)

subtype 8 - mark 2

 And finaly, the 6 is attached to the basic line (3)

subtype 8 - mark 3

Variety 6 IX

Subtype IX also has 3 distinguisable marks.

 There is a dot / beauty mark under the left eye of Hidalgo (1)

beauty spot under the left eye

Mark 2 is an ink spot on the inner side of the white circle around the central image. (2)

thick spot on the border of the outer circle

The third and last mark is the border line underneath the 6 - it is thicker than the regular stamps,
or - as you wish -  there is a dot on that  border line. (3)

dot on the frame line under the 6

Variety 6 X

The last variation has 2 characteristic marks.

subtype 10 - 2 characteristics

The first mark is found on the top corner of the M in Mexico,  it looks like there's a small antenna on the left top of the M (1)

Antenna on the first leg of the M

Second mark, is the frame above the X of Mexico (2).
On this 10th variation, the frame is broken at the top of the second leg of the X.

broken frame on top of the X of Mexico

Overview variations VI to X

(

Variations VI (light blue) - VII (-) - VIII (orange) - IX (pink) and X (purple).

This is so far the 10 variations on the "6. CENT" Hidalgo 1868.
The missing variations will be added - I hope -  in the near future.
All help is welcome of course.

In my next post, we'll take a closer look at the the 12. CENT in this series.

Mexico 1868 Hidalgo : 02a 6 cents

The varieties on the dotted 6 cents :

basic 6 cents (with dot)

Variety 6 I
The first variety has two specific characteristics.

1st oddity : there is a thinckening above the 6, in the bottom line of the circle.

var 6 I a

2nd oddity : there's a dot below the ornament in the left bottom corner.

var 6 I b

Variety 6 II

A second subtype, also has 2 chararcteristics:

1st oddity : the X in Mexico looks deformed

var 6 II a

2nd oddity : there is an additional 'dot' in front of the 6

var 6 II b

Variety 6 III

info on subtype III is still missing

Variety 6 IV

Subtype IV, can be identified by two characteristics too:

There is a thick line in the M of Mexico. The stroke gowing downwards from left to right, is thicker than the other strokes.

var 6 IV a

Secondly, the outher circle is thickened towards the left frame of the stamp, above the left corner ornament.

var 6 IV b

Variety 6 V

info on subtype V is still missing

Overview variety I to V

Variety I (yellow), variety II (blue) and variety IV (green) on the dotted 6 cent Hidalgo 1868.
more to follow ...

Mexico 1868 Hidalgo : 01c Introduction

The first issue of the Hidalgo stamps were only produced between September and December 1868.
The second issue, the 'ones with the dot', have been issued and used between 1868 and 1872.

In my previous post, I posted a grid of various Hidalgo stamps, to show the variety of district numbers.
If you payed attention, you'll see that the first stamp (District 1: MEXICO) has a two-digit number, where districts 2 - 9 only have one number.
There's little info on this two-digit number, and also a single-digit District 1 exits:

District 01 and District 1

The only info I found is, that this is a trial printing for the district/year numbers, usually found on thin figures stamps. You can find them with all kind of numbers, sometimes even several (different) per stamp.
The few 01 stamps I have, are all of type A (thin numbers) and also all with a pen cancel.

As said before, there are 6 stamps in the series without a dot, and 5 in the series with a dot.
Having one of each is a nice start.

If you look for one stamp of each district, you'll have to multiply each of the 11 stamps by 41 ...
makes 451 stamps.
Type A (without a dot) comes with the year 68 or 69, type B comes with the years 68, 69, 70, 71 or 72...
So needles to say, you can easily collect up to 3157 different stamps from this Hidalgo 1868 stamp.
Or 287 varieties for each individual stamp.

The reason for this series of articles here, however, is not to find the 'obvious' ones, but the special ones.
Therefore, I'll post in the next days, some of the varieties found on the type B (dotted number).

Although I will try to be as complete as possible, I don't have stamps (yet) of all sub types of this second issue.
For each stamp (6, 12, 25, 50 and 100 cent), there are - as far as I know - 10 sub types detected from the original mold.
Some sub types can easily be described, but let's not forget that each stamp in this issue has been overprinted with a year, a district number and a district name. And knowing that most of these stamps were used, also a regular cancel (or a forged one) is on top of the stamp as well.

Not an easy job to find the sub types, but if you plan to 'level up' your Hidalgo collection, stay tuned..