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Published on February 28, 2008

Paniti Chalalert pokes around in her purse for money to pay the food vendor. She's got dozens of 50- and 25-satang coins but she figures the vendor will want nothing to do with them. Those she'll keep for the superstores or convenience stores, where the prices aren't automatically rounded off to a full baht.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was only last week encouraging people to use small coins more to help slow inflation, but a street vendor is still going to holler at you if you spread out a puddle of satang - or sometimes even baht coins.

"I don't accept any small change - it's too complicated," says curbside food vendor Boonma Thongjit. If the customer is short she gives them the food at a discount rather than get loaded down with currency. The coins they offer are turned away.

"I tell them to use it for their bus fare."

Anything less than a Bt5 coin is basically worthless to her, she explains. She can't use small coins at the fresh market - where her daily purchases amount to several thousand baht - or at the gas station.

The best thing that can be said about the widespread spurning of small coins is that people tend to donate them to temples, and that's what Boonma does.

There has been speculation recently at the Commerce Ministry about whether there's enough small change circulating, but Treasury Department deputy director-general Charuwan Chantimapong says there are 2.3 billion 25-satang coins going around and 16 billion 50-satang coins.

Outside the supermarkets, though, it's rare to get a bill that ends in satang. Smaller shops tend to round the tally up to a full baht or the nearest Bt10.

At Boonma's food stall, the cost of a plate of khao kaeng rose from Bt20 to Bt25 after Chinese New Year, the result of months of steadily rising prices for petrol and her cooking ingredients. Instead of boosting the price by Bt2 or Bt3 every few months, she held off and jumped it by Bt5.

"Have you ever seen anybody selling khao kaeng for Bt23?" she asks. "There's no such standard."

The Bt5 hike in her favourite rice dish doesn't sit well with Pinyaluck Chantavorawat, who is always delving into her supply of small coins for the bus and boat, as well as shopping. She complains that her neighbourhood grocer often rounds up the price even when the label price ends in 50 satang. "They just say the small coins are rare."

Not true. The Treasury Department produces 12 million 25-satang coins and 12 million 50-satang coins every month. Some are temporarily removed from circulation for cleaning, but only a small fraction.

So the vast majority is still on the market - though not changing hands. Most people dislike taking up wallet space with small coins and, anyway, it can be embarrassing counting out dozens of coins at the cash register.

Instead, they simply toss the low-denomination coins in a dish or pail at home. Eventually they'll unload them in bulk, donating them to a charity that can make use of them in quantity, or to a temple, where the satang might be melted down and re-forged as amulets.

The metal from the coins is sometimes transformed into fashion accessories too - rings and bangles and the like. It's a telling phenomenon since, as the Treasury lamented several years ago, it costs 70 satang to manufacture a 50-satang coin and 50 to make a 25-satang piece.

When so many of these coins fall out of circulation, the Treasury has to produce more.

Not all retailers shun the small change.

Nittaya Luksanavisit, owner of the Namprik Nittaya shop, has been selling the chilli dip nam prik in Bangkok's Banglamphu district for decades, and she's never "rounded up" the price. When her production costs have risen, she's asked her customers if they'd mind a Bt2 or Bt3 hike in the bill. No one's ever objected to the gradual rise.

"I take all the coins, big or small - it's all money to me," says Nittaya.

Does she realise she's helping the country's economy?

"I'm just thinking of my customers' convenience," she says.

Sirinya Wattanasukchai

The Nation