5 Baht

Thailand's 1945 government notes were issued under extraordinary circumstances — the country had formally allied with Japan in December 1941, and by the war's end the domestic monetary system was under severe strain from wartime inflation and disrupted trade. The Finance Ministry issued these notes directly rather than through the Bank of Thailand, which had only been established in 1942 and lacked the infrastructure to manage wartime currency output alone.

Pick 55A is the watermark-free variant; a watermarked version exists as a parallel issue, making paper stock the sole distinguishing factor between the two catalogue entries. The distinction matters for attribution — both circulated simultaneously.