Siambanknote.com

       Museum map

• Museum main page
• Room 1
   Mai
   Foreign's banknote
   Att Kradad
   Ngeon Kradad Luang
   Other types
• Room 2
   1st Series
   2nd Series
   3rd Series
   4th Series
   5th Series
   6th Series
   7th Series
   8th Series
   9the Series
   10th Series
   11th Series
   12th Series
   13th Series
   14th Series
   15th Series
• Room 3
• Elements in Notes
   Places
   Persons
   Events
   Thai arts
   Signatures
• Glossary
• Bangkok
  

          The issuance of Thai banknote kept the same way of India's banknote issuance which was based on the British Currency Acts.

          In 1900, Mr.W.J.F. Williamson, British officer, Ministry of finance of India, was called to work this project.

          The Siamese Currency Act was promulagated in 1902 and then ordered the British printing company to print the first series of banknotes in two years later.

          Thai banknote are always change in design by series. The first bunch of Thai banknotes were printed from Messrs Thomas de la Rue & Company Limited in England. In 1939, Bank of Thailand (BOT) was established and took over the responsibilities in monetary policy and currency control.

          In WWII, due to the Thai Government allied itself to with Japan, the British printing company could not supply banknotes to the Axis, so Thai government requested the Japan government to print banknotes in 5th series.

          Anyway the banknote transportations always were attacked by the Allied, Thai government assigned The Royal Thai Survey Department (RTSD) to print banknotes by using local raw materials. Because of the remained high demand of banknotes, BOT also commissioned the Naval Hydrographic Department (NHD) to carry out additional printing. [more]