No person may purchase an indemnity certificate of location or scrip unless he is qualified to purchase state lands as provided by law. As the commission from time to time ascertains the number of acres to which the State is entitled as indemnity, it may sell at its office in the City of Sacramento, for cash and to persons qualified to purchase state land, indemnity certificates or scrip, at a price fixed by the commission at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) an acre and in such quantities as the commission deems are for the best interests of the State.