As we say in Texas: "Come and take it." Or, for the more Hellenically attuned, I might say: "μολὼν λαβέ."
(io9) - Under the rule of Russian tsar and notorious beard-hater Peter the Great — which ran from 1682-1725 — men sporting facial hair were subjected to a beard tax that afforded them a token informing strangers that they were honest, tax-paying hairballs. As Erik Jensen explains in a 2003 article from the journal Tax Notes:
For those who elected to forgo the foreplay and keep their beards, one of the nice touches of the beard tax was that payment “entitled the owner to a small bronze medallion with a picture of a beard on it and the words TAX PAID, which was worn on a chain around the neck to prove to any challengers that his beard was legal.”
You can read more about the history of Peter’s beard tax here.
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