Switzerland - Automobil Cancel

I spotted this recently and would like to know the origin of the cancellation on this stamp. Obviously not a town cancel, but is it related to the RPO (railway cancels) from Canada or the various travelling post offices you find in the U.S.?

You guessed correct; it is a postbus-cancel.

Peter

Look at Switzerland Scott #237, 307, 327, and 345-346 and you will see the various types of post-bus over the years; #237 and #345-346 were sold ONLY on post-buses.

This is an interesting thread.

Some years ago, I was fortunate to be able to win an auction lot of an official Swiss book that was published for the 1947 International Stamp show held in Geneva.

The book is too large to fit properly in my sanner bed but I was able to get most of it.

In this book was a real stamp applied to a memory sheet and it commemorates the Automobile or Post Buses of that nation. Because of the size of the book, I couldn't line the sheet up evenly for all to see here, but, you should get a general idea. I didn't want to take the memory sheet out because it would take away the original state of it.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Actually, yes, this is becoming quite intriguing. At least it has me looking more closely at my Swiss stamps. Once the really obvious was pointed out to me - that there was a connection to those postbus stamps - then I have started to troll through various websites to find out a bit more about this means of taking Post Offices to more isolated locations.

I wonder if there is something similar in many countries whether it be rail, highway, or ship? That might be an interesting thread to start though I have no idea of what to call it. If anyone has a good idea for a title, I shall rename this one and we could go from there.

And thank you for the information so far.

Perhaps Traveling Post Offices, as they are designated in much of the Commonwealth. You find lovely "T.P.O." cancellations on Great Britain and Australia. Whether they SOLD stamps to the general public, I don't know; maybe they were simply for processing mail. Actually, I don't know if the American HPO's and RPO's served the public either.

I think Finland and Denmark (at least) have post-buses too, selling stamps.