Dear friends,
Last week I decided to venture out to buy gold. Well, I could only afford a tiny piece, about one Salung (about 3.8 grams). When we buy gold here, we use the same name as our currency, 'Baht'. One Baht consists of four Salungs; so when we buy gold we would say: 'I would like to buy gold weighing one Salung, two Slungs. If you have lots of money, you can buy two Bahts, three bahts or twenty Bahts. By the way, one Baht also has 100 Satangs; so one Salung has 25 Satangs, two Salungs equal to 50 Satangs. By the way, Thai gold is selling at 96.5% of purity. This is because it is easier to melt gold into gold jewelry, not too hard and not too soft. Most people here normally buy gold jewelry; gold bars are quite strange for most people, except for the well educated people and serious gold collectors.
Gold weighs in Baht and grams:
1 Baht is approximately 15.2 grams of gold.
3 Salungs or 75 Satangs is equal to about 11.4 grams of gold.
2 Salungs or 50 Satangs is equal to about 7.6 grams of gold.
1 Salung is equal to about 3.8 grams of gold.
1/2 a Salung is equal to 1.9 grams of gold. (For this small amount of gold, one can buy a gold ring.)
(The entrance of United Building, Silom Road)
I went to the main branch or head office of AUSIRIS In Silom Road, the hub of shopping centers and office buildings. The shop opens half day on Saturdays, the roads are more spacious! On Saturday, the section on gold jewelry is not opened so I could not show you their beautiful designs. Ausiris is on the ground floor of United Building on Silom Road; the main office is on the 15th floor where one could find the trading rooms, computer centers, various offices and sections of the company.
The price of gold on the day I bought my one Salung gold bar. There is normally a 100 Baht difference between the selling and buying price. This is the only shop that offers a better deal by paying above the official selling price and one pays less for the buying price; about 50 Baht difference. For gold bar of 5 Baht upwards, they will not charge the premium.
The reason I buy all my gold and silver there because I have been to their original small shop in China Town years ago and have seen how progressive the owners have been over the past twenty years. The original shop was established almost 80 years ago, they did manage to recruit old generation of goldsmiths and those whose ancestors used to work in palaces. Therefore, their gold jewelry designs are just fabulous. (Too expensive for me!) The shop also stocks imported Swiss gold coins at 99.99% purity, occasionally one can see Canadian gold maple leaf and some specially imported coins. Last year the shop had some beautiful Swiss Athena silver bars; they just got snapped up by foreign tourists by the box! Luckily, my friend and I got several of these silver bars.
In 2003, Ausiris was setup to trade gold bullion, gold futures, trade gold online and giving formal advice on gold investment. It was the first company to develop relevant software for monthly gold savings' accounts. A customer can start with 1000 Bahts per month. The software will divide the money into equal amount for 20 working days to buy gold at the end of each day. So this is a very good way to average out the risks. (For more details, please go to http://www.ausiris.co.th)
They also have special designs for 'mothers' days' and 'fathers' days' and they sell these at 50% discount for premium. The premium for 1 Baht gold is 150 Baht, so this month of August the premium is reduced to 75 Baht. That's why I waited for specific time to buy my tiny piece. Nowadays, lots of people prefer to buy and sell gold online; but there is a waiting period of two days after selling off gold online before the next purchase. The gold saving accounts can be done either online or by phone calls. Ausiris is a member of Thai Gold Traders Associations and is in association with World Gold Council. The registered capital of the company was 150 million Baht. They have four offices in Bangkok and at least six branches outside Bangkok.
(They also have zodiac designs, Chinese characters and dragons.)
(The Ausiris gold bar collection)
(This design is for Valentine day last Year.)
(A sample of the gold jewelry design.)
This is the tiny 1 Salung gold that I bought. Each piece is number and the shop keeps tracks of each customers' records so that when selling back to the shop, no premium would be deduced at all!! This is the only shop, that I know, which provides customers with this service. Now, my friend from Singapore follows me to this shop and has been stacking gold every month, it's alright he is a rich businessman.
I just have to leave my readers with this dazzling gold picture!
Wishing you all golden day and golden week!
Cheers.