Unsure of that despite being a “circulating commemorative coin”; but in 1963, 1 baht was the highest denomination coin before being increased to 5 baht in 1972.
How Thais could carry a 20-baht coin with 19 1-baht coins?
Ang numismatika ay libangan ng pag-aaral ng barya at perang papel.
Numismatics is the hobby on studying coins and banknotes
Numismatik adalah hiburan pelajaran uang logam dan uang kertas.
Unsure of that despite being a “circulating commemorative coin”; but in 1963, 1 baht was the highest denomination coin before being increased to 5 baht in 1972.
How Thais could carry a 20-baht coin with 19 1-baht coins?
Yeah I filed a catalog change to be changed to being a non circulating coin.
In the period 1960–1965, they issued 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 / 100 bath banknotes, so it would be strange if this single 20 bath coin issue (there are none others in this period) was circulating. If you paid with it, you would be likely to get much of your change … in banknotes!
EDIT — I wrote this post before seeing Bram's post. I agree one needs good evidence to change the status. The Numista values for these different grades IMHO doesn't qualify because all kinds of people provide all kinds of values in all kinds of grades for coins that are most unlikely to be found in circulation.
It would indeed have been a very high nominal coin, but it did contain a nice bunch of silver to fulfill that value. Also the mintage of 1 million is not that much less than the 1 baht commemorative coin (3 million) from 1963 or this billion 1 baht from 1957 (3 million too) or the 1 baht commemoratives from 1961 (4,4 million) and 1966 (9 million). So I don't think there is any discussion about the 1 baht pieces, but the 20 baht might still have been issued at face value and meant for circulation (eg. the Spanish 2000 pesetas coins from the 90’ies and more similar examples).
So I do join the “it would be strange” team, but do not discard the option completely of it being circulating/meant for circulation. I think we need local input from @Sakrificed 😃
Just call me Bram
No new swaps for the moment, still too many half-ongoing swaps to clean up!
Yes — they may well be technically circulating, but probably not intended for circulation (and at least a portion of the issue was for sets). On eBay (via picclick) there are many of them and they go for about US $30 in UNC grade. As a matter of fact, they're almost all UNC or AU. I don't think I've seen one that was XF or below, so they were probably not intended for circulation.
However… in the World Coins catalogue, they give values starting at XF. Either some did circulate or else (and this is just one of many possible explanations) many people tossed them in their chest of silver trinkets where they got scratched every time someone looked for something in it or, worse, cleaned and polished them.
Ah — interesting, though it probably got its wear and scratches from having been mounted and worn as jewelry. Yet further evidence that at least some/many people didn't see them as common circulating coins.
At that time it was a high value coin. A meal (a plate of rice plus soup or curry) would be only 1฿~2฿. The biggest circulation coin was the 1 Baht.
1 Baht commemorative types were indeed circulated. They have the same size as circulation issue and I inherited some of my grandma's hoard of 1 Baht coins she got from her business.
I also heard that early types of 10 Baht commemorative coins did circulated (Nickel and copper-nickel coins; at the time there was no circulation issue until 1989), but it was understandable, as the Baht lost some value, and the biggest circulation coin was the 5 Baht.
In conclusion I don't think the silver 20 Baht did circulated widely. Coins of AU and XF condition are mostly damaged from poor storage.
Catalog editor for Thailand and Japan.
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One should be very, very cautious with AI, but this seems to be pretty accurate:
No, the Thailand 1963 20 baht coin did not circulate as a regular coin; it was a commemorative silver coin minted for collectors, not for general use in commerce. These types of coins were made to celebrate significant events or cultural heritage, distinguishing them from standard currency, which circulated in the Thai economy.
Commemorative, not circulating: The 1963 20 baht coin was a special issue, not a part of the regular currency system used for daily transactions.
Collector's item:These coins were created for collectors, which is why they are often sold on platforms like eBay and are considered valuable to numismatists.
Distinct from regular currency: The 20 baht denomination was not regularly in circulation at the time, so this coin was produced for a different purpose than general use.
I crossed out the irrelevant (and rather wrong) info. The rest fits well with what I've seen in the Numista catalogue and the WC 1901–2000.
