20-baht coins may substitute banknotes
Published: 1/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: Business 
The Treasury Department is currently studying the possibility of producing new 20-baht coins.
Finance Ministry officials said talks have yet to be opened with the Bank of Thailand about the issue. If the department moves ahead with the plan, the central bank, which is responsible for banknote printing, would be asked to scrap production of 20-baht banknotes in favour of the new coins.
The Treasury Department, which now produces 10-baht coins as the largest, general coin in circulation, is also likely to move forward with plans to produce a new lot of 2- and 5-baht coins.
The department wants to mint 150 million coins of each denomination, and is now in the process of considering bids for blanks used to produce the coins.
Siam Poongsan, a Korean-owned company with a factory in Laem Chabang, has been shortlisted as a supplier for the blanks.
Charuvan Chantimapong, a deputy director-general of the Treasury Department, said while production costs for coins do outweigh those of banknotes, coins offer longer lifespans.
She said officials would consider the impact on inflation within the economy from the issue of higher-value coins.
"But personally, I don't think the impact would be significant, considering that coins account for just 4% to 5% of the total amount of money in the system," Mrs Charuvan added.
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