Who said money doesn't smell?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

People often say, "Money doesn't smell." Some take these words literally, while others take them figuratively. What is the secret contained in this overwritten expression, if it has not lost its relevance for more than 20 centuries?

The smell of income is good…

“Money doesn’t smell” - this phraseological unit was born as an ironic commentary on the dialogue that took place between the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus.

Once the Roman treasury was empty, because the current income for the numerous ambitious projects of Vespasian was no longer enough. The emperor found a non-trivial way out of the situation by imposing a new tax on newly built public latrines.

Tit began to reproach his father for the unaesthetic solution of the issue. Instead of answering, Vespasian handed his son the money from the new tax and asked if he could smell it. Titus replied in the negative. The emperor then noted with satisfaction that urine was the source of money.

This episode formed the basis of one of Juvenal's satirical works. The beloved cynical expression “money doesn’t smell” is a short, prosaic version of one of hispoetic line.

You walk past the coin workshop…

Vespasian was definitely lucky that at the time of his dialogue with his son, the Romans used metal money. If banknotes had been invented by that time, the world would have lost the well-known saying.

Modern paper money is made from wood pulp (pulp) and a mixture of cotton and linen fibers. A specially prepared canvas is soaked in gelatin to give it greater strength, and holograms, polymeric or metallized threads are inserted into it to protect the national currency from counterfeiting.

Rubles smell like printing ink…

The Russian currency really does not have any specific smell. New rubles smell almost the same as fresh newspapers. Souvenir Olympic 100 rubles pleased with the original vertical design, but did not smell of anything special. Apparently, the developers were not tasked with flavoring domestic banknotes in some way.

Many people think that brand new US dollars smell like green apples. In fact, North American money does not smell of anything. The main role in the spread of this tale was played by the green color of the bills, and not their special apple flavor.

Not so long ago, the Bank of Canada had to officially deny reports that it is issuing banknotes with the smell of maple syrup. In fact, Canada recently completely switched to banknotes, which are made from transparent and wellflexible polypropylene film.

They can be wrinkled, folded and even machine washed. Unfortunately, plastic money shrinks when exposed to heat and becomes electrified. But they are much harder to counterfeit, and they are 2.5 times more durable than regular money.

Each bill has a different smell…

The expression “money does not smell” can easily be refuted by any cashier who, by profession, encounters large amounts of cash. Bank employees working at the counting desk are very enthusiastic about what the notes that fall into their hands smell like.

“The proceeds of various enterprises and organizations are brought to the cash vault,” says the cashier of the evening cash desk of one of the large commercial banks. “I can already tell by smell which of our clients has been visited by the cash collection service today.” Indeed, banknotes that have been in rooms with a strong, persistent odor for a long time will definitely absorb it.

Unfortunately, the bakery's daily earnings won't please you with the smell of freshly baked goods. But the money that has been in the hands of employees of a company that pours sweet carbonated drinks will smell of pear or orange essence for some time.

Those who have seen ten-ruble notes smell musty, and the smell of melted plastic, which comes from vacuum-sealed banknotes, has become the most favorite smell for all cashiers.

Only taxes don't smell of anything…

Following the emperor Vespasian, the tax officials of somethe leading European powers also decided that money does not smell. The meaning of this expression was fully appreciated by athletes coming to Austrian ski resorts.

The authorities of this country have introduced the so-called "cast tax", the purpose of which is to compensate for the cost of medical care for tourists who were injured and ended up in hospitals there. The presence of medical insurance, in this case, is not taken into account.

Venice has been levying a shadow tax since 1993. They were imposed on the owners of those buildings whose visors cast a shadow on the municipal land. When calculating the amount of tax, the number of cloudy days in a year is not taken into account.

Since 2008, the Estonian government has imposed an "environmental levy" on cow owners. Local cows have been recognized as the main air pollutants in this country.

Such examples once again confirm that since the time of the Roman Empire, the principles of taxation have not changed much. The state is able to extract income from the most unexpected sources, since non-cash money does not smell by definition.