Pawn Shops Near Me

A pawn shop, also known as a pawnbroker, is a shop that provides loans to people, using an item of their property as collateral. Some pawn shops specialise in items such as jewellery, electronics or valuable antiques. Some pawn shops buy items outright rather than offering loans. When a customer does not pay back the loan, the shop will try to sell the collateral property to make back the loss. The duration of the loan is determined by laws or the pawnbroker’s own policies.

The act of trading an item for a loan is known as “pawning” or “hocking”. The item offered as collateral is known as the “pawn” or the “pledge”. To find your closest pawn shop, simply search for “pawn shops near me”!

Pawn Shops Near Me – Find it on the Map

Pawn Shops Near Me – Pawn Shops Trivia

Where were the first pawn shops?

Money lending is one of the oldest professions. The earliest pawn shops appeared in ancient Greece and Rome, and also in China. William the Conqueror brought the concept to England during the Norman Crusades of the mid 1000s. According to Jewish law, Jews were forbidden to lend money to the poor; while Christians prior to the Protestant Reformations were also forbidden to lend money to other Christians. Jews would circumvent this by lending money to non-Jewish people, as would Christians.

The earliest Chinese pawnbrokers were in fact owned and operated by Buddhist monasteries. Most of the English laws concerning money were inherited from the Roman Empire. However, according to Roman law, clothes, furniture and other items could not be pawned; this law was not inherited by the English. The Roman emperor Augustus created a state-controlled fund from the confiscated property of criminals, which was used to lend money to people, without interest, who would pledge valuables equal to double the amount of the loan.

How is an item pawned?

The process begins with a customer bringing an item into the pawnshop. The pawnbroker assesses the item for damage and determines a valuation. The pawnbroker must take care to identify counterfeit items. In some places, the law will protect pawnbrokers who buy stolen items; while in other places the pawnbroker is required to notify police of all purchases, and to take identification from the customer.

The pawnbroker must also evaluate the customer and determine how likely they will be to pay back the loan. The pawnbroker and customer will then come to an agreement as to the terms of the loan, which must take into account the laws and policies of the pawnbroker. The pawnbroker will then keep the item while the customer makes payments on the loan. If the customer does not make payments after a certain period, then the pawnbroker has full rights to the item, and will attempt to sell it.

What do pawnbrokers sell?

Pawnbrokers will sell items whose previous owners failed to pay the loans, or items that the pawnbroker has bought outright. Pawnbrokers must balance their shop’s inventory, because too few items will not encourage customers to visit, while too many will add to storage costs and will not translate to income for the business.

Some pawnbrokers specialise in items such as antiques, while others will be more general and buy most sorts of items. Pawnbrokers may also turn to other means such as eBay to sell off items that they cannot sell in their stores.

To find your local pawn shops, search “pawn shops near me”.

Pawn Shops Near Me – Pawn Shops Facts

The symbol for a pawnbroker is three orange, gold or yellow spheres suspended from a bar. This symbol is attributed to the Medici family of Florence, Italy. According to legend, a member of this family was employed by Charlemagne to slay a giant, and did so using three bags of rocks. Another possible origin story is from Saint Nicholas, patron saint of pawnbrokers. According to a tale, he gave three bags of gold to the three daughters of a poor man, in order to allow them to get married. Saint Nicholas had a reputation for secretly giving gifts, and he became part of the origin of Santa Claus!

In China and Hong Kong, the symbol for pawnbrokers is a bat holding a coin. The bat symbolises ‘fortune’ and the coin represents ‘benefits’. Chinese tradition is for the shop counter to be taller than the average person, who must hold their hands up to pass their belongings along. Also, there is a wooden screen between the front door and the counter to protect the customers’ privacy. In Japan, the symbol is the number 7 in a circle, because the Japanese word for ‘seven’ sounds similar to the word for ‘pawn’.

Edward III, king of England in the 1300s, fought a war with France. In order to raise funds for the conflict, he pawned his royal jewels.

It used to be believed that Christopher Columbus’ journey to America in the 1400s was funded by Queen Isabella of Spain, who was said to have pawned her crown jewels to fund the journey. This, however, is today considered to be false. However, she did pawn her jewels to merchants in Valencia and Barcelona in order to fund the battles with the Moors.

Part of the lyrics in some versions of the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” may refer to pawning. In the verse “Up and down the City Road / In and out the Eagle / That’s the way the money goes / Pop goes the weasel!”; the ‘weasel’ is believed to be slang for a coat, and ‘The Eagle’ refers to the famous Eagle Pub of London. Thus the song refers to pawning a coat after spending too much money on alcohol.

The word ‘pawn’, in the pawnshop sense, is unrelated to the chess piece, which is an older use of the word. Instead, the word is derived from the Old French word ‘pan’, meaning ‘pledge’. This in turn came from a Germanic word that may also be the origin of the word ‘penny’. The English verb ‘to pawn’ appeared in the 16th century, ‘pawnbroker’ in the 17th, and ‘pawnshop’ was first used in the mid 18th century.

The word ‘hock’, an alternative verb for ‘pawn’, comes from the earlier phrase ‘in hock’, used to describe an item that had been pawned and was still in the pawn shop. The noun ‘hock’ comes from the Dutch ‘hok’, referring to a jail, hovel or pen.

To easily find your closest pawn shops, you can search “pawn shops near me”.