Supreme king in a chamber surrounded by money (3,10)
I believe the answer is:
par excellence
'supreme king in a chamber surrounded by money' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'king in a chamber surrounded by money' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'king' could be 'rex' ('king' in Latin) and 'rex' is present in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
'chamber' could be 'cell' (I've seen this before) and 'cell' is found within the answer.
'money' could be 'pence' (I've seen this before) and 'pence' is located in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for par excellence that I've seen before include "Beyond comparison" , "Beyond compare" , "Fine example" , "Superlative" .)