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When a 10-baht coin is worth 100,000 baht, you know inflation has gotten out of hand.

When a 10-baht coin is worth 100,000 baht, you know inflation has gotten out of hand.

Even though I’m not a fan of change I still end up with far too many coins in my pocket during my travels in Thailand. Personally, I think coins should be banned world-wide. There’s not much you can buy for under a buck these days anyway, and there’s gotta be a better mousetrap for dealing with those few sales that do total to such an insignificant amount. Like a kingdom-wide fine against 7/11 store clerks who insist on giving you a plastic straw when you buy a can of soda. Those fines could be paid with the overage from sales that still tallied to under a buck. Or loyalty cards could be issued that tracked those amounts for future use when you need to hit a public restroom that chargers a user fee for entrance to the porcelain kingdom or for the toilet paper you may use during that sojourn.

Instead we hold to that quaint custom that used to give meaning to the phrase ‘a penny for your thoughts’ and even if it’s satangs instead of copper we all end up burdened by a pocketful of the coin of the realm. If I’m out shopping with my friend Noom, I hand him the coins I get as change. He used to horde that loot. Now he gives it to the first beggar we pass. Paper is the only thing of value in his life these days too. And if Noom isn’t around to lighten my load, back in my hotel room I throw those worthless bits of metal into a pile that reaches Mt Everest in size by the end of my stay – I’m not a big fan of tipping housekeeping staff either, but am a fan of killing two birds with one stone.

Being the insidious thing that they are, despite my coin-avoidance techniques, when I get back to the US of A, invariably, I have a pile of the damn things in my luggage. They get thrown into a drawer that I only use for stuff that I have no use for. I should just throw them in the trash can. But even in the worthless form that coins are, it still is money. And it’s difficult to throw money away. Which doesn’t explain how often I’ve thrown money away on a bar boy who turned out to be a dud, but that’s a different subject. Whether you are pro or anti coin yourself, you probably have quite a collection of Thai coins too. You might want to dig those suckers out. Because it could be worth 100,000 baht. Which, even in coins, is nothing to sneeze about.

Your change please!

Your change please!

According to Punnawat Siriruengwanich, the owner of Panun Jewelry Shop in Rayong, there are 45 to 95 10-baht coins floating around somewhere in the world, each worth 100,000 baht. They are collectibles. And while I never saw the value of other collectibles, like Beanie Babies or Limited Edition Commemorative Elvis Presley plates, collecting cash always seemed like a worthwhile hobby to me.

Punnawat says 100 of the 10-baht coins were minted back in 1990 for a foreign exhibition; only half made their way back to Thailand ‘cuz I’m not the only man who hates carrying coins. !0-baht coins have been minted annually since 1988; in 1989, 100,000,000 were produced and in 1991 1,380,650 were placed in circulation. But the 1990 mintage was only 100 coins. “So it’s a very rare coin and a great interest for coin collectors,” says Punnawat who is responsible for the 100,000 baht bounty placed on the missing bi-metal currency. “Only five of these coins have been found, as far as I know.”

Since Punnawat offered the 100,000 baht bounty, the country has gone into a 10-baht coin feeding frenzy and even the Finance Ministry has gotten into the act. Treasury Department chief Naris Chaisut felt obligated to address the validity of Punnawat’s claim and said he checked with the deputy director-general of the Treasury Department to confirm the rarity of the coin. Only 100 were minted in that year; they were issued to delegates at a coin exhibition in England to make them aware Thailand was about to mint 10-baht coins to replace 10-baht banknotes. Punnawat says an unnamed businessman contracted him to search for the coins. Not that his hunt for the elusive coins has paid off, the treasure hunt’s popularity has forced him to change his phone number. “I did not expect that it would be such a massive trend,” he says. “My phone almost burned down.”

It’s a shame that pay phones have become a thing of the past, or Punnawat’s phone problem could be easily solved. Although the irony of someone using their 100,000 baht 10-baht coin to make that call is just too delicious to think about.

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