Should Thailand Abolish All Satang Coins?

[Jingthing]

I find them pesky and I never spend them. Either I leave them on the counter at the places that give them or throw them in a jar at home, never to be spent. You can't even pay baht bus fares with them.

Edited December 17, 2009 by Jingthing

[londonthai]

metal to make them is now more expensive, than what they are worth.

one day do take those coins to the bank - they have to take them

[Jingthing]

metal to make them is now more expensive, than what they are worth.

one day do take those coins to the bank - they have to take them

I will never take them to the bank and I suspect most people never do that. It would be interesting to know how many billions of baht are sitting in people's satang jars.

[Mighty Mouse]

For me they are a nuisance but for the Thais they still have value. If not, you'd see a lot more of them lying around on the ground.

[lazygourmet]

Everything representing HM The King portrait has a value.

[phetaroi]

They go in my te,temporary coin jar. When I leave the house, if I am going somewhere where I am likely to encounter beggars, I take a handful of baht coins, along with the satangs that are laying there.

[torrenova]

Yes, remove from circulation. They are a waste of time.

[sanook2me]

They go in my te,temporary coin jar. When I leave the house, if I am going somewhere where I am likely to encounter beggars, I take a handful of baht coins, along with the satangs that are laying there.

A true old hand and gentleman too boot...

This is my style too...I normally put around 30baht in my pocket so I can drop some into a beggars bowl....

Recently i went to my first Thai funeral (bar b q) it was my wifes grandmother and during the ceremony they walked around the oven temple 3 times while throwing coins on the floor... At home we have a glass jar next to the little budhha to save coins in to give to a temple...they came in use on this day as no one had to bother looking for lots of coins to use.... and i just happened to take this bag to the funeral but to give to the temple i had no idea about this part of the ceremony..

For Thai funerals a little bag of coins is ideal...

[Meridian007]

I agree with Lazygourmet, but also, if 1 Baht = 3 cents (US), then 50 satang = 1.5 cents, or a penny and a half. A penny isn't going to buy you much in America, (not even "penny-candy" anymore), but if you compare the cost of items in America to the cost of items here, the satang might still have some monetary value. That being said, I don't know if that monetary value is high enough to warrant keeping satangs or pennies.

[PattayaParent]

My 5 year old likes to play with them, especially the new shiny ones 'cos she thinks they're gold coins.

There's a lot of new shiny ones about so they must have just minted a new batch.

[dantilley]

You can't even pay baht bus fares with them.

When you say "Baht Bus", you mean a Songthaew, the trucks with two rows of seats in the back? I used to use Satang coins every day to pay their fares when the ones going on my route cost 5.50 Baht a journey (and, before that when they were 7.50 Baht). Now that they are 6 Baht a journey I use them less often, but can still pay with a 5 Baht coin and two 50 Satang coins (or four 25 satang coins, or whatever) with no problems.

Not really sure what the fuss is about satang coins. You can combine them up to a whole Baht value and spend them in any shop (or bus, motorbike taxi, etc.), never had them refused and not sure why any shop would refuse them. Plus there is the rare occasion where your shopping bill does come to X Baht + a fraction of a Baht, and obviously you can spend them then also.

[bkkjames]

If you get rid of em JT, how will I pay the .5 portion of my 3.5 baht lil green bus ride to work everyday?

[Orac]

They probably hold on to them just to annoy us. I know that, as a Brit, if the rest of Europe vote to get rid of 1p and 2p coins the UK population would probably be up in arms no matter how useless they were.

[needforspeed]

Waste of space and time, abolish them.

[Heng]

Easy and often permanent free loan for the gov't. So they'll probably be around for awhile.

[BangkokJazz]

Yes they should be gotten rid of, but they never will - there are too many canny Thais, using computer programs like the one Richard Pryor used in Superman III, where he took all the fractions of a cent and sent them into a separate account. Lots of those guys doing that. They get the idea from Truevisions, which broadcasts Superman II every 12 hours, in order to prevent global warming, which is a myth according to many on TV. But at the root cause, I'm sure the PAD, Thaksin, the UDD, the Abhisit government, Kasit, and God, are those directly responsible for this mess. Did i cover all?

Oh, its also there because it enables Thais to charge double at the national parks to farangs. The Satang is to blame for all.

[Jingthing]

Easy to solve these so called problems. Just round up or down to the nearest baht.

As far as the penny vs. the satang coin, I think they are very different.

With the penny, there is only the penny, not multiple penny coins such as 25 percent of a penny, and a half penny.

Psycologically spending them is different. For example, at a 7-11 in the US if your bill is 64 cents, the clerk won't bat an eye if you pay with two quarters, a dime, and four pennies. In Thailand, if your bill is 64 baht, and you paid with three 20 baht bills, and SIXTEEN 25 satang coins, they would not be happy at all! In fact, I have never witnessed such a transaction, while in the US paying with a bunch of pennies is rather common. Now I realize for a bus fare of 5 baht 50 satang, many would use one 5 baht and two 25 satangs or one 50 satang. But overall the practical utility in everyday life of the satang is much less than the penny.

While I think there are also good arguments to abolish the US penny, there are even better arguments to abolish Thai satang coins (as detailed above).

After nixing the satang coins, if one day the baht becomes a super currency, and one baht equals one euro, then they can always bring the satang back.

About the comment about the King's image on satang coins so they can't be abolished because of that, that is a bit over the top, don't you think? If they abolished the satang, it would be normal to allow people to have a time period to exchange the old currency at banks. So if you had 1000 baht in satangs (wow) you could go to a bank and get a new valid bill (or coins).

Edited December 18, 2009 by Jingthing

[PhilHarries]

Easy to solve these so called problems. Just round up or down to the nearest baht.

Do me a favour JT, Thais rounding DOWN? More chance of finding that buried train with all the Japanese gold from WWII. You been smokiong those herbal ciggies?

They're like the 200 Dong (circa 1 Cent) coins here, only place you get them is the supermarket. In Thailand I used to throw all the satangs into a jar and the missus would take them to the temple when the jar got full. Trouble is if you get rid of the lowest denomination coins it merely gives an upward twist to inflation as nobody rounds downwards (not in my experience anyhow).

[Jingthing]

So round up then for pricing. Again, no big deal. For taxable events, they could make it the law that 49 and under rounds down, 50 and up rounds up. Paper and coin currency is for SPENDING. Most of the satangs are in jars. That defeats the entire point of currency. For saving purposes, there are banks.

Edited December 18, 2009 by Jingthing

[PattayaParent]

^ but the difference in Viet Nam is that they have only just introduced the Dong coins to replace the tatty paper notes of the same denomination, the coins have never been a fraction of a Dong like the Satang are.

[PhilHarries]

I agree JT but to take the case, a few years back, of the eggs at my local shop at 1 Baht 50, this would round up a massive, earth shattering 33% and be the cause of truckloads of farangs leaving Thailand for good.

So all in all sounds a good idea, scrap the things.

btw PP I do have a 200 Dong note kept for posterity (and the fact I could find nobody to take it). Most Vietnamese quote prices in '000's so sau (6) is 6,000 until you get to 10,000 then they knock '0,000 off so sau is 60,000.

[caf]

So round up then for pricing. Again, no big deal. For taxable events, they could make it the law that 49 and under rounds down, 50 and up rounds up. Money is for SPENDING. Most of the satangs are in jars. That defeats the entire point of currency.

I don't think the Thai government would appreciate or even care what you think as a farang they should do in their own country.

[lazygourmet]

Easy to solve these so called problems. Just round up or down to the nearest baht.

As far as the penny vs. the satang coin, I think they are very different.

With the penny, there is only the penny, not multiple penny coins such as 25 percent of a penny, and a half penny.

Psycologically spending them is different. For example, at a 7-11 in the US if your bill is 64 cents, the clerk won't bat an eye if you pay with two quarters, a dime, and four pennies. In Thailand, if your bill is 64 baht, and you paid with three 20 baht bills, and SIXTEEN 25 satang coins, they would not be happy at all! In fact, I have never witnessed such a transaction, while in the US paying with a bunch of pennies is rather common. Now I realize for a bus fare of 5 baht 50 satang, many would use one 5 baht and two 25 satangs or one 50 satang. But overall the practical utility in everyday life of the satang is much less than the penny.

While I think there are also good arguments to abolish the US penny, there are even better arguments to abolish Thai satang coins (as detailed above).

After nixing the satang coins, if one day the baht becomes a super currency, and one baht equals one euro, then they can always bring the satang back.

About the comment about the King's image on satang coins so they can't be abolished because of that, that is a bit over the top, don't you think? If they abolished the satang, it would be normal to allow people to have a time period to exchange the old currency at banks. So if you had 1000 baht in satangs (wow) you could go to a bank and get a new valid bill (or coins).

Actually 7-11 are accepting them... and give you cash in exchange -not need to purchase anything- ; if they are packed and under cello per one baht value.

The jar that we got at home belongs to the maids and every 2/3 months they are having fun of wrapping them, even finding some bigger coins and then... they enjoy a very nice day out.

[ballpoint]

So round up then for pricing. Again, no big deal. For taxable events, they could make it the law that 49 and under rounds down, 50 and up rounds up. Money is for SPENDING. Most of the satangs are in jars. That defeats the entire point of currency.

No big deal for you maybe, but when the official poverty line is around 40 baht a day, and remembering that many are living below this line, every baht matters. If a person were to have just three items a day rounded up from 50 sataeng to 1 baht then they'd be looking at paying an extra 45 baht a month. A whole days monetary allowance gone. But, as I said in the news thread about the 20 and 50 baht coins, why should we worry that the lives of the poor would be made that little more difficult? These coins spoil the lines of our Levis, they've got to go.

Why not just leave your sataeng coins at the checkout? Or place them in the donations for orphans box found at many supermarkets? Or, as others have said, give them to beggars or temples? Or send them to me? I can assure you, living in Isaan, I do not keep my sataeng coins in a jar at home, not just because I'm stingey, but because they are very much a useful part of the currency here.

[Jingthing]

So round up then for pricing. Again, no big deal. For taxable events, they could make it the law that 49 and under rounds down, 50 and up rounds up. Money is for SPENDING. Most of the satangs are in jars. That defeats the entire point of currency.

I can assure you, living in Isaan, I do not keep my sataeng coins in a jar at home, not just because I'm stingey, but because they are very much a useful part of the currency here.

Really? I don't know about how things are in the never never.

[ballpoint]

I can assure you, living in Isaan, I do not keep my sataeng coins in a jar at home, not just because I'm stingey, but because they are very much a useful part of the currency here.

Really? I don't know about how things are in the never never.

Not so much the "never never", as the "maybe maybe", or the "next week next week". Nevernever the less, a lot of people would be upset, and find life that little bit harder, should prices be rounded up by even half a baht.

[gotlost]

And what are the BG's going to do when they leave the next morning and sees that 500 baht of satang coins that the new kid on the block has setting on the dresser and she says, "Oh handsome man can I have your satangs?

[heykki]

My friends use them daily for the 5.5 baht van that goes along the road.

[Jingthing]

My friends use them daily for the 5.5 baht van that goes along the road.

Would it really change their life to pay 6 baht for the trip?

[mahtin]

They probably hold on to them just to annoy us. I know that, as a Brit, if the rest of Europe vote to get rid of 1p and 2p coins the UK population would probably be up in arms no matter how useless they were.

Mate, the rest of Europe couldn't give a flying <deleted> about your pee.

We use Euros.