Thai baht

Overview

The baht (; Thai: บาท, pronounced [bàːt̚]; sign: ฿ or บ.; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 satang (สตางค์, pronounced [sà.tāːŋ]; sign: st. or สต.). The currency was officially adopted during the Sukhothai period (1238–1438 CE) and continuously issued since. Initially issued in the podduang form, King Rama IV decided to switch to flat coins in 1860. The baht was then decimalised in 1897, before which the baht was divided into 8 fueang (เฟื้อง, pronounced [fɯá̯ŋ]), each into 8 at (อัฐ, pronounced [ʔàt̚]), and each into 100 bia (เบี้ย, pronounced [bîa]). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-most-frequently used world payment currency as of December 2023. The baht was defined as 15.16 grams (0.4874 troy oz) of silver or gold, which was exchanged at 16:1 ratio. This was the case until the decree of June 29, 1874 which switched the Thai baht to the silver standard, and again in 1908, converting the baht to the gold standard before being completely debased in 1962 with the halt in production of the silver baht coin. The baht was pegged to the Spanish dollar from 1856 at a ฿5 to $3 ratio. It was then pegged to the British pound sterling (£) at a ฿8 to £1 in 1880 and subsequently several re-pegging to a new ratio. The baht was then pegged to the US dollar at a ฿20 to US$1 ratio along with several re-peg. The baht was forced to float in 1997 causing the Asian financial crisis.

History

Coins in Circulation The Thai baht, like the pound, originated from a traditional unit of mass. Its currency value was originally expressed as that of silver of corresponding weight (now defined as 15 grams), and was in use probably as early as the Sukhothai period in the form of bullet coins known in Thai as photduang. These were pieces of solid silver cast to various weights corresponding to a traditional system of units related by simple fractions and multiples, one of which is the baht. These are listed in the following table: Though the coins themselves have names like: solot, siao, sik, etc., the formal division of the Thai baht (tical) is 1 baht = 8 fueang = 64 at. This means that one baht is divided into eight fueang, and each one fueang is divided into eight at. Currently, the Thai baht do not employ the at as a subunit, but the at is the current subunit of the Lao kip.

Denominations

This predecimal system was in use up until 1897, when the decimal system devised by Prince Jayanta Mongkol, in which one baht = 100 satang, was introduced by his half-brother King Chulalongkorn along with the demonetisation of silver bullet coins on 28 October 1904 after the end of silver bullet coin production by the opening of Sitthikarn Royal Mint in 1857. However, coins denominated in the old units were issued until 1910, and the amount of 25 satang is still commonly referred to as a salueng, as is the 25-satang coin. Until 27 November 1902, the baht was fixed on a purely silver basis, with 15 grams of silver to the baht. This caused the value of the currency to vary relative to currencies on a gold standard. From 1856 to 1864, the values of certain foreign silver coins were fixed by law, with 5 baht = 3 Spanish dollar = 7 Indian rupees. Before 1880 the exchange rate was fixed at 8 baht per £, falling to 10 to the £ during the 1880s. In 1902, the government began to increase the value of the baht by following all increases in the value of silver against gold but not reducing it when the silver price fell. Beginning at 21.75 baht per British £, the currency rose in value until, in 1908, a fixed peg to the British pound sterling was established of 13 baht per £. This was revised to 12 baht in 1919 and then, after a period of instability, to 11 baht in 1923. During World War II, the baht was fixed at a value of one Japanese yen on 22 April 1942. From 1956 until 1973, the baht was pegged to the US dollar at an exchange rate of 20.8 baht = one US$ and at 20 baht = 1 US$ until 1978. A strengthening US economy caused Thailand to re-peg its currency at 25 to the US$ from 1984 until 2 July 1997, when the country was affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The baht was floated and halved in value, reaching its lowest rate of 56 to the US$ in January 1998. It rose to 30 per US$ in January 2021. The baht was originally known to foreigners by the term tical, which was used in English language text on banknotes until the series 2 1925.

On the topic of demonetization

Unlike many nations that periodically demonetize obsolete currency series to combat counterfeiting or financial crimes, Thailand maintains a policy of perpetual legal tender status for its paper currency. Under national monetary frameworks, all banknotes officially issued by the government since the central bank's establishment remain legally valid for circulation and exchange at face value. Though this is done through omission as per the Currency Act B.E. 2501. While older paper issues theoretically retain full purchasing power, their modern everyday use is virtually non-existent. This is due to a lack of public familiarity, compatibility limitations with modern automated banking systems, and the fact that their collector value often vastly exceeds face value. However, any obsolete or heavily worn banknote can still be exchanged for modern equivalents at any commercial bank or directly at the BOT without an expiration date.

Precedents for demonetization

There are only one occurrence for demonetization of a series. The first time is when the currency transferred to the decimal system, eliminating denomination such as at, fuang, and etc. This occurred through a bunch of decrees from 1895 to 1909 when the old currency was phased out.

Currency symbol

The currency symbol for the baht is ฿ (a Latin letter B with a vertical stroke). In 1986, this symbol was given a codepoint for computer use in the Thai Industrial Standard 620–2533 (Thailand's extension of ASCII), at position 0xDF. This national standard was subsequently subsumed into international standards as ISO/IEC 8859-11 ("ISO Latin-Thai"). In turn, the ISO 8859 series were transposed into the Unicode standard, where the symbol was allocated the codepoint U+0E3F ฿ THAI CURRENCY SYMBOL BAHT. The symbol is also used for the Panamanian balboa.

Abbreviation

In Thai usage, the baht (บาท) is legally abbreviated as บ. according to Section 7 of the Currency Act, B.E. 2501 (1958).

Bitcoin

For a time, the baht symbol was appropriated by some as a symbol for Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency. Following representations, a separate code point (U+20BF ₿ BITCOIN SIGN, a Latin letter B with two vertical strokes) was allocated in Unicode version 10.0.

Square katakana

In Unicode 1.0, two codepoints were allocated to the baht, one as the currency symbol in the Thai range and one in the CJK Compatibility block as a square version of the Japanese word for "baht", written in katakana script. The CJK codepoint, U+332C ㌬ SQUARE PAATU, is documented in subsequent versions of the standard as "a mistaken, unused representation" and users are directed to U+0E3F ฿ THAI CURRENCY SYMBOL BAHT instead. Consequently, only a few computer fonts have any content for this codepoint and its use is deprecated. (The Japanese for "baht" is バーツ (bātsu). However, the reference glyph ⟨㌬⟩ and the character name correspond to パーツ (pātsu, from English "parts").)

Historical symbols used before decimalisation

Before decimalisation, the Siamese government employed Chinese, Latin, Jawi (Malay), Devanagari, Khmer and Khom, Lanna, and Burmese scripts in banknotes and coins, as seen. The reason is not clear, though it is a common understanding that it is to ease the facilicitation of trade within Siam. It could also be the case that at the time, the capital, Bangkok (Phra Nakhon) was still a multi-cultural city, so as to be more inclusive, the government added various other language onto the currency – though by the second series after the decimalisation in the 1900s, the currency was all but monolingual. 圓; yuán (บาท): This character was use during the times of Rama IV to represent ticals, though this was phased out by another character which is in partially and informally used today. The only occurrence of this character was in Rama IV's banknote series. 銖; 铢; zhū (บาท): This character was in use from 1868 to 1925 officially on banknotes to represent ticals. It is still in use today unofficially to refer to the Thai baht in general, as in 泰銖 or 泰铢. 錢; 銭; qián (สลึง): This character was in use from 1851 to 1908 officially on banknotes and coins to represent salueng. 方; fāng (เฟื้อง): This character was in use from 1851 to 1908 officially on banknotes and coins to represent fueang. The notation for these Chinese character are written like they are in Thai, though there is a caveat: it is written right to left, as was the convention back then, so one tical is written 圓壹 or 銖壹, if there are smaller units involved the notation can write like such: 方銭參圓壹 for one tical, three salueng, and one fueang.

Summary

History

*actual year produced vs year in active use

Events

[Adoption of bimetallic standard] 1238 – The baht was adopted as the national currency in the forms of Podduang. The currency used the bi-metallic standard at 1:16 gold to silver ratio. 1500 – Modern pre-decimal denominations of the baht were fully in use, mainly: 1 att, 2 att, 4 att, 1 fuang, 2 fuang, 4 fuang, and 1 baht. 1835 – Government moved toward the adoption of flat coins 1852 – The first circulating banknotes were introduced 1862 – The first circulating flat coins were introduced 1869 – Adoption of 0.900 fineness standard for silver coins, prior to this, the mint used the "best silver available". [Adoption of silver standard] 1875 – The production of all coins above the 1 baht value and all gold coins was halted 1897 – Government started the process of decimalisation, the introduction of 2.5 satang, 5 satang, 10 satang, and 20 satang coins. These coins co-circulated with the pre-decimal coins 1904 – Demonetisation of the Podduang, [Adoption of gold standard] 1908 – Introduction of the 1 satang, 25 satang, abd 50 satang coins. The production of the 2.5-satang coins was halted. 1 baht coin is now 15g, and made of 13.7g silver at 0.900 purity. [Decimalisation] 1910 – Government finished the process of decimalisation, all non-decimal currency, including banknotes and coins, were demonetised. The new series of coins; consisting of 1 satang, 5 satang, 10 satang, 25 satang, 50 satang, and 1 baht coin; was introduced. [Silver crisis] 1915 – Debasement of silver standard to 0.800 fineness, worldwide silver price crisis starting a global trend towards fiat currency. 1916 – Debasement of silver standard to 0.650 fineness 1918 – Removal of 1 baht from circulation, silver became too expensive to use in coins - doubling in value. 1919 – Debasement of silver standard to 0.500 fineness 1920 – Re-establishment of silver standard to 0.650 fineness, coinciding with the lowering of silver price 1945 – De facto move towards fiat currency and the abandonment of the silver standard due to coins no longer being made from silver. 1946 – Removal of 20 satang from circulation 1950 – Removal of 1 satang from circulation 1957 – Debasement of silver standard to 0.030 fineness, re-introduction of the 1 silver baht coin [Debasement] 1962 – Adoption of the fiat currency, and the abandonment of the silver standard. Due to this, the production of the last silver coin (1 baht) was halted. 1972 – Introduction of 5 baht coin. 1977 – Removal of 5 satang and 10 satang from circulation. 1987 – Introduction of 10 baht coin 2005 – Re-introduction of 2 baht coin