In The Money

Tricky. Thanks, DrTom

Ah, very cool. Neat twist.

Fun to solve even a second time! Thanks, DrT!

Would never have gotten this without a lot of assistance. Yeesh. Thanks for the puzzle, Tom!

Hmm... I see these references to smells in the clues: 15A PIZZA (aroma), 21D PRY (nose), 25D BADEGG (odor), 30D WETDOG (whiff), 32D ROSES (bouquet), 64A BREAD (fragrance). But that's six, and 1A refers to five, and anyway 21D isn't symmetric like the others. But wait, symmetrically we have PIZZA and BREAD and between them we have RISES, so is it DOUGH like money/bread? No. How about YEAST? No. Oh wait, back to those clues. I know! It's CENTS! No. SCENTS? No. CENT? No. Hang on, there are five of them. What about NICKEL, which is also a metal that could be used in some money? Yay!

Ah -- Had 1 - 4 but needed the 5th nudge to figure out you wanted something involving its actual composition. Still, I had to try zinc and copper too before realizing we were supposed to count 5 mentions -- 5 (s)cents = nickel. (Was thinking of trying "Joey Nichols, get it? Joey Five Cents!") And I liked my rabbit hole, SWEAT; you might need it to make money and it might have a certain,,,,,um.... scent. Thanks, DrTom!

Oh. I thought nickel was a step to get to the end. I didn't think it was the end in itself.

MINT is a nice smell.

Just saying.

The nudges (all of them) got me guessing elements in the manufacture of coins. And it is only now, after perusing the other comments that I finally get it: "FIVE SCENTS" sounds like "five cents" which is called a nickel which is a metal used in making money. That was waaaaaaay too hard for this Aussie! We don't have nickels Downunder.

I can't believe that I tried copper, but not nickel...

Solved with nudges. In retrospect it all made perfect SENSE!

Submitted CENTS right away, but didn’t get NICKEL until I read hint 5 more carefully (and in a DM, Tom told me to count my change). Yeesh. My bad.

Ach, I coud not zinc of ze answer vissout ze nudges. I kep thinking that the placement of the themers --- three verticals sandwiched between two horizontals -- must be giving a picture of something -- jail cell? -- that might be related to the four long entries.

As there were far more NE's than NI's (in forward and backwards and sides) I briefly wondered if the chemical symbol for Nickel was NE instead of NI. Then I wondered how else NICKEL could be the key to finding the meta. Racked my brain a long time before I realized that Nickel was the meta.