What's the point of having silver in 1957 1 Baht coin?

Hello everyone!
This one is just bugging my mind lately,

So I understand that debasement might be the main reason why some coins have such a small amount of silver in it, but I just do not know why this issue even has that 3% of silver at all instead of just using cupro-nickel or pure nickel. Is there some historical background around it? Is it to make the coin itself stronger somehow? Because with the naked eye, the coin itself - especially ones that has been circulated - just look like another cupro-nickel coin, compared to another billon (albeit higher in silver content) such as the 1 mexican peso coin in the 60s that can somewhat looks silverish even when it has been circulated so I am not sure that the silver is in there to make it look like a silver coin.

I am quite curious about this, maybe some Thai members or those who are expert in modern thai coinage knows about it?

Thanks!

 

The 1957 1 baht coin was the first 1 baht coin issued in Thailand and replaced the soon to be discontinued  1 baht paper banknote. Although it’s not clear why they didn’t just dispense with the silver altogether, the percentage of silver was limited to 3% to keep the value of the metal at or below the 1 baht face value. Although it doesn’t totally answer your question, I hope it’s enough to satisfy your curiosity.

Maybe the crusible they used to melt the metal wasn't cleaned out before use.

jc'scoins

Maybe the crusible they used to melt the metal wasn't cleaned out before use.

A dirty crucible containing 21,675 troy ounces of silver? 

rsirian1

jc'scoins

Maybe the crusible they used to melt the metal wasn't cleaned out before use.

A dirty crucible containing 21,675 troy ounces of silver? 

Definitly not possible.

It is probably more to give it some metal value so it has the appearce of having metal value.

blue-m

The 1957 1 baht coin was the first 1 baht coin issued in Thailand and replaced the soon to be discontinued  1 baht paper banknote. Although it’s not clear why they didn’t just dispense with the silver altogether, the percentage of silver was limited to 3% to keep the value of the metal at or below the 1 baht face value. Although it doesn’t totally answer your question, I hope it’s enough to satisfy your curiosity.

I do think that this is the best hypothesis for now. I also found that one other reason of keeping the silver might be due to the currency itself being pegged to USD at that time even though the ratio of the silver itself (Silver 1957 1 Baht : Peace Dollar → 1 : ~112) is way different to its ratio in exchange rates (1 USD = ~20 THB)

Anyway, thank you everyone for participating in this discussion!