Thai currency is called Baht, and is issued in coins and paper bills. I find it difficult to convert Baht to US Dollars in my head, but over time I’ve gotten a fairly good idea of what I’m spending.

Coins come in five denominations. The 25 and 50 Satang coins are very small, made of brass, and useless - when you consider 1 Baht is worth roughly .027 US. The useful coins come in 1, 5 and 10 Baht pieces, and you can tell them apart by their sizes - smaller value = smaller coin.

Bills vary in size and color according to denomination: 20-Baht is green, 50-Baht is blue, 100-Baht is red, 500-Baht is purple and 1,000-Baht is white.

I don’t know how typical I am, but I find my wallet filled mostly with 20’s and 100’s. This is only logical, because you are always breaking the 1000’s dispensed by the ATMs.

The conversion rate is constantly shifting slightly, so these are just rough numbers, but it gives you a general idea of what each denomination of Baht is worth in US Dollars.

1 B = .027 US
5 B = .137 US
10 B = .27 US
20 B = .55 US
50 B = 1.37 US
100 B = 2.70 US
500 B = 13.65 US
1000 B = 27.3 US

There are a number of free currency conversion web sites out there. I happen to use GoCurrency.com.