You'd have to be hard-hearted not to be moved by the arrival of the Olympic euro from Athens.

Today, in Land's End, the great flaming coin begins its historic, 70-day farewell tour of the UK, the first time any currency has been afforded such an honour – effectively a state funeral – and people are making the most of it with many expected to take the day off from jobs they don't have as it travels around the country.

Some say marking the currency's collapse already is premature; that it's shutting the stable door before the Greeks bearing gifts have said beware of the Trojan horse that you can lead to ouzo but can't make drink to kickstart the economy. But, ahem, bankers are no fools. They've seen the writing on the wall and it says: "You're a bunch of fools". Homer made the same observation in The Iliad when he said: "Bart. Why have you done this to your sister's room?"

The symbolism is piercing – the flaming coin, suspended on a golden cone that looks like a gleaming cheese grater (because it has shredded the Hellenic economy); the teams of runners, so like those anxious folk in Athens, and now Spain, who have rushed to the bank to remove their savings; and, of course, the special containers of spare euros waiting in the wings, should this one be extinguished before it has completed its journey.

The flame, first lit all those years ago in Olympia, represents friendship, unity and peace – or FUP, which is the sound the Greek economy makes. Its arrival is being marked in all kinds of ways. Vauxhall, thrilled that its Ellesmere Port plant has been saved, is re-naming the new Astra, the Acropolis, and holidays on the island of Tulisa Contostavlos are to be free in June.

There's a party atmosphere down there at that famous part of England named after a catalogue. Up on the cliff edge – a place familiar to so many Greek banks – they're selling Double-Dip Recession ice cream, while down on the beach there's a sand Parthenon being constructed. A red carpet has been laid out in Plymouth and two students will imitate Merkel and Hollande's award-winning two-step in Berlin earlier in the week, repackaged on You Tube as Strictly Come World Leaders.

It remains to be seen if the Greeks will now make a drachma out of a crisis.