Pecunia non olet

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Pecunia non olet (Latin for "money does not smell") is a Latin saying.

The Roman Emperor Vespasian introduced a urine tax on public toilets. When his son Titus criticized him, he supposedly pointed out that a coin did not smell, even though it came from urine (e lotio est). (Suetonius, Vesp. 23)

In the Robert Penn Warren novel "All the King's Men", narrator Jack Burden mentions this quotation in chapter 9.

The French have this saying as well: "L'argent n'a pas d'odeur.", and so have the Dutch: "Geld stinkt niet."

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