Brewer's: Rhino

Ready money. (See Nose.) May not this explain the phrase “paying through the nose” (par le nez), that is, paying ready rhino. Rhino = money is very old.

Some, as I know, Have parted with their ready rhino.

The Seaman's Adieu (1670).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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