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
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.
Currency sub-unit equivalents
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 currecy 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.
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