Numismatic Press Helps Promote Temple Cleanup

Coins Weekly, a German Internet numismatic publication, has spotlighted community efforts in Greece to cleanup the Temple of Aphrodite in Thessaloniki. See http://www.muenzenwoche.de/en/page/4?&id=1157&type=a

Greek archaeological authorities had allowed the temple to be taken over by trash, and had refused private efforts to help.

Apparently, however, an article in Coins Weekly helped embarrass Greek authorities enough that they allowed community members access to the site to clean up the mess.

Perhaps then, coin collecting and what it does to encourage interest in the past should be encouraged rather than suppressed as advocated in archaeological circles, and by cultural bureaucrats in both Greece and the United States.