Money Does not Smell

This is what the Roman emperor Vespasianus is reported to have said, holding a coin under his son Titus' nose, when he justified the introduction of a new tax on using public restrooms because the state coffers were empty.
As we all know money is the simplest thing: it is just a number. It is a very simple number: an integer. We can safely round the pennies. Money is the easiest human goal to imagine and to check if it has been achieved: it is just a number. This is why money is so old: it is easy to count it.
Money is getting more and more spiritual, literally. Or, at least, less material. Money has become a truly ecumenical religion: people with either money or want of it find each other and talk same language. They can talk for hours. One dollar is a line and a hundred is a verse of a sacred book. …