About Us

Vasili Sarantopoulos

My journey into paper money collecting began during a family vacation to Traverse City, Michigan, when I was just 14. Influenced by my father's passion for stamp collecting, it was no shock to see that I found interest in old history and antiques.

As we were down there we stopped into couple antique stores. In one of the stores I found some older Silver Certificate which I had no idea what they were at the time but I found them to be interesting and what I would’ve said at that age “they looked cool”.

One particular note, an 1899 $1 Silver Certificate, which I found to be absolutely stunning, but at the price of $150 and not knowing what I was doing I passed on the note. Fast forward couple years later at 16 years old I was helping my dad with the stamps and instead of accepting money from him I told him why don’t I find myself the 1899 Silver Certificate that I always wanted.

From then on I became hooked into collecting paper money and want to share that passion I now cherish with others.

 

Panagiotis Sarantopoulos has been a collector of stamps for over 30 years. Like all collectors there is always a tale to be told on how he began. As a young boy living in a small town in Greece, he watched his older sister collect stamps. "I always wanted to see them and she would never let me come near them", he recalls.

One day as he was prying through her room, he saw her collection in the garbage. He couldn't believe she would throw away such interesting treasures, so he fished them out. This was the beginning and he has been building his collection ever since.

He is now grateful to his sister for exposing him to the greatest hobby of all time. As he got older, he continued to seek out and learn more about the world of stamps. "My knowledge had really expanded" he recalls "when I came here to Illinois, at the age of 16, I began collecting US stamps." At the age of 18, he was introduced to his first error and has been in love ever since. Later at the age of 27, he started collecting stamps from Greece and surrounding areas; about a decade later Sarantopoulos Philatelics was born. Now he wants to share his passion with you and has opened this site as a way to reach out to others who share his love of collecting.