New Thai Coins Set To Reduce Minting Cost

[george]

New coins set to reduce minting cost

BANGKOK: -- The Cabinet yesterday agreed that adjustments be made to all nine coins in circulation, expecting to cut minting costs by Bt1.9 billion a year. Published on August 8, 2007

Chodechai Suwanaporn, a deputy government spokesman, said the resolution would affect all new coins. "The changes are to reduce minting costs, which is higher than the nominal value. The changes will cut costs by Bt1.9 billion per year," he said.

"To continue producing the current coins, the Treasury Department will have to bear Bt1.1 billion in losses. As of April this year, the price of metal rose sharply against the levels during the same period last year - nickel by 280 per cent, copper by 121 per cent and aluminium by 107 per cent," Chodechai explained.

He said the current cost of minting was 40 per cent more than the coins' face values. New coins will also bear an updated image of His Majesty the King, replacing the one that has been used since 1987.

New coins will be smaller, lighter and coated with cheaper metal, like copper for 25- and 50-satang coins and nickel for Bt1. The Bt2 coins will be made of a copper-coloured bronze-aluminium composite, while the Bt5 coins will be coated with a silvery metal such as nickel.

The Treasury Department will work with the Office of His Majesty's Principal Private Secretary to apply for a royal approval on the new coins' patterns and wording before officially announcing regulations on usage.

A source at the Cabinet meeting said the Finance minister had also said that the Bt1 as well as 25- and 50-satang coins would be gradually phased out, and the Bt2 coins used instead. The change will be slow to prevent public panic.

-- The Nation

[Martin]

"The change will be slow to prevent public panic."

The possibility of a public panic in Thailand being induced by a cheapening of the looks of its coins by the running of the Thai baht stamping mills is probably small compared to the possibility of international public panic induced by the cheapening of the purchasing power of the world's reserve currency, due to the running of the US$ printing presses.

[rychrde]

Ok, so what they're really doing is buying back their coins to cash in the increased metal price! :-)

Haven't done the sums for Thai coins, but many years ago in Italy some coin denominations disappeared from circulation as the metal was worth more than the face value.

rych

[PETERTHEEATER]

And give time to round up all retail prices to 5 baht..........

[rychrde]

A source at the Cabinet meeting said the Finance minister had also said that the Bt1 as well as 25- and 50-satang coins would be gradually phased out, and the Bt2 coins used instead. The change will be slow to prevent public panic.

huh?! remove Bt1 coins?! Ok, I have a 10B coin and buy some sweets for 7B, what is the change? I can just see the faces of shop owners trying to do the mental contortions.

[Payboy]

just buy two of everything that is priced in odd numbers and you'll be okay...

[tijnebijn]

So to put everything short .....every price will go up.....so more inflation.......7 baht will be 10 baht .

12 baht will go 15 baht ....Everybody will like this...

[pgs]

Had the same thing in Oz when 1c & 2c were phased out - now we have talk of dropping the 5c. Any excuse to put prices up.

[PeaceBlondie]

Oh please, not the 2 baht coin! You know, the one that resembled the 1 baht coin so much that nobody ever used it. And since the Thai mint cleverly prints different colors of banknotes, could we have colored coins of obviously different sizes, thicknesses and shapes? Okay, phase out the satang coins, but not the single baht! Not until year 2575, anyway.

[A_Traveller]

Interestingly enough the 2 baht coins are being given in change much more, recently, looks like there's a move to get them into circulation.

Regards

[ovenman]

Interestingly enough the 2 baht coins are being given in change much more, recently, looks like there's a move to get them into circulation.

I've yet to receive a single two-baht coin in change here in Chiang Mai, but I have received several such coins while in Bangkok.

[sriracha john]

New coins will be smaller, lighter and coated with cheaper metal, like copper for 25- and 50-satang coins and nickel for Bt1.

The Bt2 coins will be made of a copper-coloured bronze-aluminium composite, while the Bt5 coins will be coated with a silvery metal such as nickel.

25/50 satang coins to be lighter? ... they'd blow away in the wind if they were any lighter. Of course, not that they'd be worth going after if they did blow away...

On the plus side, the 2 baht coins being copper-colored will aid in their identification as different than the 1 baht coin.

[Scott]

I think they should make the coins out of recycled plastic bags--lots of them around. Maybe the price of plastic will rise!

[ovenman]

I think they should make the coins out of recycled plastic bags--lots of them around. Maybe the price of plastic will rise!

Good call. That's about what a 25-satang coin is worth.

[londonthai]

the rounding up for a 7baht candy can go up to 8baht or down to 6baht.

still there is possible to pay 12baht (10+2) and get 5baht change 12-5=7

[bottleymike]

A source at the Cabinet meeting said the Finance minister had also said that the Bt1 as well as 25- and 50-satang coins would be gradually phased out, and the Bt2 coins used instead. The change will be slow to prevent public panic.

huh?! remove Bt1 coins?! Ok, I have a 10B coin and buy some sweets for 7B, what is the change? I can just see the faces of shop owners trying to do the mental contortions.

Just a thought. But when I first came to Thailand on holiday in 1986 there was a general shortage of small coins. You never saw any 25 or 50 stangs, and that was when those coins were more (relatively) valuable than today.

This was before supermarkets like Carrefore or Tesco existed. So all my shopping was carried out in small mum & pa type shops.

The standard way of giving change then was to give one candy sweet per 25 stang change owed to make up for the lack of coins.

So if Thailand heads back down that route, three things spring to mind.

1/ In future when you go shopping take a kilo of candy sweets to barter in lieu of change.

2/ Buy shares in Hershey and Cadbury's. Sweet company shares could go through the roof!

3/ Airport customs checks will start to include smuggled tins of toffees, candy and bon bon's at BKK airport.

[stumonster]

all nine coins in circulation,

25, 50 satang - 1 ,2 ,5 ,10 baht ? and the other 3 ?

[Mid]

all nine coins in circulation,

25, 50 satang - 1 ,2 ,5 ,10 baht ? and the other 3 ?

Rarely used 1, 5, 10 satang

en.wikipedia.org

edited to add cite

Edited August 10, 2007 by Mid

[Martin]

Nice one 'bottleymike' (post#17)!

Even today, in some Isaan villages, with some itinerant traders, if people haven't got the cash, rice is accepted in payment.

Say the pickup that is loaded with trays of eggs arrives and you would like a tray, but haven't the cash.

You can take the measuring basket from the driver, go to your granary, fill it with rice and bring it him.

At the end of the day, he pays in the rice at the Chinese rice-buyer's depot, just like traders in the West will pay in their cash takings at the bank.

If we look back in history, replacements of the coinage have been fore-runners of the collapse of fiat money systems too often for comfort.

There are some today who are beginning to think that holding property, or those heavy little bars that can be bought at gold shops, is a better prospect for preserving family savings for the benefit of the next genearations than holding paper currency.

[tuky]

I hate coins..especially in a place like Aust where you can end up with 50 bucks worth of coins in your pocket.

However 10 baht is handy for giving to the maid as a tip...

[sriracha john]

all nine coins in circulation,

25, 50 satang - 1 ,2 ,5 ,10 baht ? and the other 3 ?

Rarely used 1, 5, 10 satang

en.wikipedia.org

edited to add cite

Just to add my 2 satangs ...

Based on frequency of pricings, what is really needed is a 99 baht coin.

[Sanpatong]

I'd say get rid of 25, 50 satang AS WELL AS the 2 baht coin, then make the 1 baht coin smaller/cheaper to produce.

Possibly introduce a 20 or 25 baht coin. Also introduce a 2000 and/or 5000 baht banknote.

The 2 baht coin was silly from the start.

[Mid]

Possibly introduce a 20 or 25 baht coin. Also introduce a 2000 and/or 5000 baht banknote.

why thank-you Mr Inflation .............................................

[sierra01]

I used to keep a couple of 25/50 satang coins on me for use in the supermarkets, if they want to price their products that way then they can have them.

[kenk3z]

The main use I've seen for those tiny satang coins is at those long rows of collection jars at the Wats. A horrendous fate awaits anyone who doesn't put a coin in them all, so to keep down the cost you can change baht into a cup of satang coins. Perhaps they can be replaced with Wat tokens or something.

ken3kz

[Cuban]

Based on frequency of pricings, what is really needed is a 99 baht coin.

The idea of pricing something at 99 Baht, Euros or Dollars is that people tend to offer a note(s) to the value of 100 Baht etc. so the till operator is forced to give change. To get that change the transaction needs to be recorded on the till, thus making staff fraud more difficult.

There have been threads on this site before about problems with Thai shop staff getting verbal/violent when not honoring such shop promisies of free goods/services when the staff do not give a receipt with any change. No receipt means the transaction is not recorded in the till and the staff are probably just running their own loose change and goods sold get chalked down as "looses". The use of smart cards in internet cafés is a prime example of a solution to staff theft in such a services business were they would otherwise get away without issuing a receipt.

1 Baht = the price of honestly ?

-------------------------------------------------------------

Personally I think the 25/50 Baht make good cheap washers.

More Thai coins should have holes in them, lighter in the pocket and less metal used.

[distortedlink]

A 2 baht coin, this is news to me. Never knew they existed, never actually seen one.

I HATE HATE HATE those stupid little irritating satang coins. Most banks wont take them, small businesses wont take them. These stupid coins are only minted to benefit big chains such as Tesco Lotus. It`s their way of squeezing just that little bit more out of us.

The government wants to save money making money, fine, ternminate the satangs ASAP.

[londonthai]

better to withdraw all the small coins (including 1 baht) than change their design - they are useless

[raslin]

Unfortunately the idiot coin designers here forget that coins should be able to be identified by feel and not by only by sight so that blind people can use them with confidence.

Yet another example of Thais seeming not to be capable of respecting all life (as required by Lord Buddha).

[markwhite]

Haven't done the sums for Thai coins, but many years ago in Italy some coin denominations disappeared from circulation as the metal was worth more than the face value.

I read recently that a similar thing is happening with rupees in India right now. From memory good profit can be had by taking them into Bangladesh to get them melted down, people selling bags on the street for more than face value...that sort of thing.