"Cash only" put on the counter, quietly, to avoid banks being severe (9)
I believe the answer is:
draconian
'severe' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cash only put on the counter quietly to avoid banks being' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'cash' could be 'c' and 'c' is located in the answer.
'on' is present in the answer.
'being' could be 'dr' (Dr is an example) and 'dr' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for draconian that I've seen before include "Very harsh like severe laws" , "Hard" , "Excessively severe" , "Incan road (anag) - extremely harsh" , "Savage" .)