Crossword Genius

In itself, Money Bag #1, so to speak! (3,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

per se

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'in itself' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'money bag 1 so to speak' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'money' could be 'p' and 'p' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'erse' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for per se that I've seen before include "Essentially" , "As such (Latin)" , "Intrinsically" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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