1 Baht Gold

[glenbat]

what the hel_l is it? Gold that costs 1 baht? I keep reading about it and hearing it but am a little confused... is it good or bad? Anyone?

[Tywais]

Baht is a unit of gold measure and is used commonly in jewellers and goldsmith in Thailand, 1 baht = 15.244 grams. (15.244 gramme is used for "raw" gold or bullion; in the case of jewellery, one baht should be more than 15.16 grammes)

Baht gold jewelry items termed " THAI BAHT GOLD " is known and recognized worldwide as 96.5% pure gold by product weight (23K) making it one of highest gold content jewelry products produced anywhere in the world today.

http://www.thai.nu/thaigold.html

[glenbat]

thanks tywais, I know not to mention it round the girls then!

[britmaveric]

Indeed weight measurement... hence 2bht gold would be dbl price of 1bht and so on. I once saw a lady wear 10bht gold - looked like Mr T wear and no doubt would cause neck problems later in life.

[siddv]

thanks tywais, I know not to mention it round the girls then!

Don't worry they all know about it. No need to mention it.

[macb]

what the hel_l is it? Gold that costs 1 baht? I keep reading about it and hearing it but am a little confused... is it good or bad? Anyone?

:D

Sorry made me laugh

[astral]

Baht is a unit of gold measure and is used commonly in jewellers and goldsmith in Thailand, 1 baht = 15.244 grams. (15.244 gramme is used for "raw" gold or bullion; in the case of jewellery, one baht should be more than 15.16 grammes)

Baht gold jewelry items termed " THAI BAHT GOLD " is known and recognized worldwide as 96.5% pure gold by product weight (23K) making it one of highest gold content jewelry products produced anywhere in the world today.

http://www.thai.nu/thaigold.html

Almost exactly the same weight half a troy ounce of gold.

Twice the weight of a British Sovereign.

[Orangutan]

I mostly buy 5 and 10 baht gold bars. Hence there is no charge for design labor. I also have a necklace, and a couple of bracelets, for these I paid a design labor premium. The spread commission for buying the bars in maybe 1-3%. For the jewelry the labor charge depends on the intricacy of the design, and whatever they think they can get. The gold prices keyed to the Spot market always seem to be higher than the London fix market; the difference is around $10, the Spot being higher. When I buy the bars the price is always under the Spot Market price.

Thai Gold

Thais use a unique unit of measurement for weighing gold, the "baht" which is precisely 15.244 grams before the gold is worked or 15.16 grams after. Most gold shops will display on their windows the current buying and selling price of a "baht" of gold bullion of 96.5% purity. Gold can also be measured in "satangs" and "salungs". 100 satangs = 1 baht and 25 satangs = 1 salung.

1 baht in approximately half an ounce of gold (1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams) so a rough and ready way to calculate the value is to divide the price of gold in ounces by 2.

100% gold is considered too soft for jewelry. In the past, perhaps 40 years ago, most gold was 98% pure, with the joints and other delicate parts being made of an alloy called nam prasam tong. Nowadays most gold sold in Thailand is 96.5% purity which is just over 23 karat. The remaining 3.5% consists of silver and bronze. Some is 98% which is called 24 karat and in some shops they sell 20 or 18 karat gold. The company Gold Master sells 99% pure gold. Prima Gold, which is a subsidiary of Pranda Jewelry sells 99.99% pure gold; they are also the market leader in 24k white gold. There are no shops selling Prima Gold in the US as yet, but you can buy it through the TV shopping channels.

There is no hallmarking system in Thailand although random checks are made periodically on gold shops to determine the purity of the gold.

In department stores you will have to pay 7% sales tax. However in many gold shops you will not have to pay any tax.

-O