Thai baht
Thai baht: a currency still in use.
- Dates in use
- Still in use; introduction date not established here
- Currency code
- THB
- Ancestry branch
- See family connections
Where this money came from
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Earlier ancestry is not established here.
No successor is established here. This does not imply extinction.
The story
The Siamese Currency Notes Act was promulgated on 24 June 1902; the new Banknotes Department first served the public on 23 September 1902, inaugurating the modern government note system. [1]
The 1856 Anglo-Siamese agreement reckoned duties and fees in ticals and salungs, documenting the earlier baht/tical account unit. 1826 duty is reported retrospectively; 1856 is direct dated observation. Same-unit extension, not tical→baht replacement. [2]
La Loubère records tribute obligations in ticals and identifies Baat as the Siamese name for the tical. Association with the continuing baht is qualified across the intervening centuries; alternative names and foreign exchange comparisons create no separate parent. [3]
Turning points
Account-unit observation
The 1536 Vat Khema inscription records a six-tical silk purchase, providing a dated monetary-price anchor earlier than the 1687–88 embassy observation. Assigning the local Sukhothai-region tical to the broader Thai baht continuity is qualified; the translation establishes a price unit, while exact regional metrological and legal continuity through later centuries remains incomplete. [4]
Account-unit observation
The Three Seals Code compiled in 1805 contains monetary body-price schedules explicitly stated in baht and tamlueng and used to calculate death compensation. Original baht entries provide a legal account-unit anchor for the continuing Thai baht, earlier than the 1856 treaty observation. The age of underlying Ayutthaya clauses remains uncertain. [5]
Account-unit observation
The Siam commercial agreement ratified17January 1827 assessed Bangkok vessel duties at 1700 or 1500 ticals per Siamese fathom of breadth. This is a dated fiscal obligation in the continuing tical/baht account unit. The 1856 agreement references the earlier 1700-tical duty. [6]
Sources and evidence
- Bank of Thailand · Thai Banknotes Evolution C563 ↗
- Siamese Royal Commissioners and Harry Smith Parkes · Agreement explaining the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Great Britain and Siam C1196 ↗
- Simon de La Loubère; translated A.P.; London, 1693; EEBO Text Creation Partnership transcription · A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam C1214 ↗
- original epigraphic edition and translation of dated primary inscription · A.B. Griswold and Prasert na Nagara, The Inscription of Vat Khema, Epigraphic and Historical Studies No. 15, JSS 63(1), 1975 C1261 ↗
- Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit · The Arithmetic of Life in Pre-modern Siam: Ranking and Monetary Value in the Penal System (2023) C1748 ↗
- C. U. Aitchison, ed.; Government of India · A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, volXIV (1929), Siam NoII Commercial Treaty 1827 C1749 ↗
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Cite this page
“Thai baht.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Reader edition 2026-10-13; research dataset v44. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/FTM000383.html