National Pawnbrokers Day – December 6, 2023

History of National Pawnbrokers Day

The word ‘pawn’ comes from ‘patinum,’ the Latin word for ‘cloth’ or ‘clothing.’ Pawnbroking history goes back thousands of years to the ancient Roman and Greek empires and China in the East. Pawnbrokers provide cash loans in exchange for goods and property as collateral.

The pawnbroker returns the collateral after the person repays the loan with interest. If clients don’t pay up, they forfeit their property, and the pawnbroker can sell it to recoup the loan.

But pawnbrokers can also play the role of a charitable organization. In Perugia, Italy, a Franciscan friar, Barnaba Manassei, started the Monte di Pietà initiative in 1450. The movement offered financial aid to people, giving them no-interest loans for pawned items. The idea was to get people to make donations to the church as opposed to paying interest. The idea gained popularity in Italy and then spread to other regions in Europe. It might surprise you to know that musical instruments are among the most pawned items over the centuries. On Pawnbrokers Day, pawnbrokers often donate the forfeited instruments to schools or charitable organizations who need them, which allows children who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to these instruments the opportunity to use them. Talk about modern-day heroes!

But they weren’t always considered heroes. From 1603 until 1872, an act was passed against brokers that aimed to undermine counterfeit brokers throughout London. Brokers in this category were referred to as fences. In England, the Pawnbrokers Act of 1872 established regulations that protected pawnbrokers who unwittingly sold stolen items. It also established the interest rate on pawned items and general guidelines that define the industry to this day.