Giving gold to your Thai girl

Giving of gold necklaces or bracelets to your Thai girl may seem pointless but my experience has been that this is more of a status symbol than anything else.  So if you’re thinking of gifting some gold, just remember she will cherish it for as long as she can.  WHAT cherish what do you mean?  Well like may things gold can be exchanged for cash in bad times.  So she will keep this gift as long as you take care of her as she thinks you should.

Thai people absolutely adore gold. It is an important part of their culture both symbolically and financially. They wear it, they use it religiously (Thai temples are covered in the stuff), give it as gifts to mark important occasions, and hoard it for future generations or ‘rainy day’. It is given to newborn babies, as part of a wedding dowry, and just about every other occasion you can think of.

Thai people are very serious about their gold. The weight measure used for gold is Thailand is the ‘baht’ which weighs precisely 15.244 grams as bullion or 15.15 grams as jewellery. All gold transactions in Thailand are done in fractions (or multiples) of 1 baht. The starting point for jewellery tends to be a quarter baht (a quarter baht is also sometimes referred to a ‘salung’). The purity is also very standard, or it would make the system of gold trading on the basis of fractions or multiple of a baht unworkable. Thai Gold is always (if it is the real thing) 23 carat which means 96.5% purity. Gold from other countries, which has a different level of purity, tends to fetch a comparatively lower price if you try to sell it in Thailand. This is because gold with a lower level of purity is a commodity which is not easily traded in Thailand.