Largest collection of first day covers stamps
Who
Konstantinos Antonopoulos
What
13,360 total number
Where
Greece (Servia)
When

The largest collection of first day covers stamps is 13,360 and was achieved by Konstantinos Antonopoulos (Greece) in Servia, Kozani, Greece, as verified on 15 February 2020.


Konstantinos sees a stamp as a small piece of art for all ages and all wallets. "They are depicted historical and global events, significant personalities and themes from everyday life. In a rural place like the one where I was born and raised, to collect stamps was an easy hobby to pursuit via the local post office. Many years ago, I used to correspond with people from all over the world and this connected me with their cultures giving me a sense of their living. The stamps were my window to the world. My very first item I got, was the 'Bridge of Tournai” Europa cept, Belgium 1978' from letters sent to my family by our relatives living in Belgium. That was the beginning, so today my collection with stamps from Belgium still have a great importance in my collection with issues starting in 1960 till 1999."

Konstantinos built his collection in 2004. "What triggered my passion once more was the Olympic Games in Athens and the wonderful collection of stamps Greece produced. I remember, when a Greek athlete won a medal, the next day the Greek Post Office issued a Commemorative Olympic Stamp to honour the athlete. One other stamp passion that I have is to collect the 'Europa-cept' stamps. This outstanding collection of stamps thrilled me and started to collect them one by one."

"My favourite items refer to the Europa 2016 collection published by all the countries in a common design issue with the moto "Ecology in Europe - Think Green" celebrating Europa stamps 60th anniversary - 1956-2016. This Europa special collection raise the timely issue to work towards saving the environment and encourage people to green thinking. A great place in my collection hold FDC stamps published by countries that throughout their history change names, boundaries or emerge new countries from old ones such as Yugoslavia. I cannot choose a stamp or a FDC as my favourite one from my collection. Nevertheless, if I had to choose one this could be the Europa FDC Bridges. Today, I believe that this piece 'built' my bridges to the stamp world, bridges that most of than ever society needs to have."