Baht
From Freepedia
The baht (บาท, symbol ฿, ISO 4217 code THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 satang. The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. As of January 1, 2005, there were 52.6667 baht to the Euro, 38.9099 baht to the US dollar, and 74.6860 baht to the British pound. The value tends to hover around 40 baht to the US dollar.
Coins in circulation ([1] - in Thai).
- 25 satang (brass)
- 50 satang (brass)
- 1 Baht (cupronickel)
- 2 Baht (plated steel) - will be introduced in September 26, 2005
- 5 Baht (cupronickel with copper rim)
- 10 Baht (bimetallic; brass center, cupronickel exterior)
Also in bank circulation are 10 satang, 5 satang and 1 satang coins made from aluminium.
- 10 Baht - Brown (becoming rare)
- 20 Baht - Green
- 50 Baht - Blue (Polymer version being phased out)
- 100 Baht - Red (New bills as of 2005 have silver security strip)
- 500 Baht - Purple (With security strip)
- 1000 Baht - Grey (With security strip)
Many commemorative 10 baht coins have been made for special events. Even though the satang-denominated coins are legal tender, small shops usually don't accept them anymore. Older coins which are still in circulation only had the Thai numerals, but the new design also has arabic numerals. All coins have a portrait of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on one side. The king is also depicted on each of the banknotes. According to Thai Law, it is illegal for someone to step onto a Thai banknote, as their king's face is on it.
Baht is also a unit of gold measure and is used commonly in jewellers and goldsmith in Thailand, 1 baht = 15.244 grams. (15.244 gram is used for "raw" gold or bullions, in case of jewelery, one baht should be more than 15.16 grams)
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History
The present decimal system, in which one baht = 100 satang (สตางค์), was introduced in 1897 by king Chulalongkorn. However until the 1940s it was named tical, then renamed to baht. Originally the term baht was a weight unit of about 15g, and was adopted because one tical was equivalent to 15g of silver.
Until November 27, 1902 the tical was fixed on a purely silver basis, but as the value of silver fell relative to gold-fixed currencies, the fixing was changed. From the lowest rate of 21.75 tical per Pound Sterling it could be soon raised to 17 tical per pound. In the same year, on September 19, the first banknotes were issued, with denomination of five, ten, twenty, one hundred and one thousand tical. Coins in 1902 were
- Silver coins
- Tical, 15.244 g
- Salung (1/4 tical), 3.8 g
- Fuang (1/8 tical), 1.9 g
- Copper coins
- Song Phai (1/16 tical), 18.9 g
- Phai (1/32 tical), 11.3 g
- Att (1/64 tical), 5.6 g
- Solot (1/128 tical), 2.8 g
One leftovers from the pre-decimalization system, the 25 satang (1/4 baht) is still colloquially called 'salueng' or 'salung' (สลึง). It is occasionally used for not exceeding 10 salueng or 2.50 baht. A 25-satang coin is also sometimes called salueng coin (เหรียญสลึง, pronounced 'lian salueng').
Exchange rates
Before 1880 the exchange rate was fixed at eight Baht per Pound Sterling, falling to ten to the Pound during the 1880s. A falling silver price further depressed rates, reaching almost twenty-two per Pound in 1902, but after switching to the gold standard, rates stabilised at thirteen Baht to the Pound. After World War I, which hurt other countries much more than Thailand, the rate rose to eleven Baht per Pound where it remained until the onset of World War II.
From the end of World War II until 1980 the Baht was pegged to the US Dollar at an exchange rate of twenty Baht to one Dollar. A strengthening US economy caused Thailand to re-peg its currency at 25 to the Dollar from 1985 until 2 July 1997, when the country was stung by the Asian financial crisis. The Baht was floated and halved in value, reaching its lowest rate of 56 to the Dollar in January 1998. It stabilized again at a rate of about 40 per Dollar, where it has since remained.
References
- Cecil Carter eds., The Kingdom of Siam 1904, reprint by The Siam Society 1988, ISBN 9748298132 - Chapter X Currency and Banking
External links
- Current Series of Banknotes in Circulation
- Current Series of Coins in Circulation (in Thai)
- The Royal Thai Mint
