What Is a Pawn Shop?
A pawn shop makes short term loans to people using their personal items as collateral. The loan is given based on the estimated value of the items being pawned. Musical instruments, stereos, firearms, televisions, gold jewelry and gem stones, power and hand tools, collectible knives, coins, etc. would all be items of value you could pawn.
All interest rates and regulations for a pawn shop are set by the state. Sportsman Gun & Pawn will hold your property as collateral. The loan is for thirty days. The loan can be renewed as many times as necessary. If the pawned item has not been redeemed or renewal payment made for a total of ninety days, the item is considered forfeited and can be sold to the public.
Pawn shops are a great place to get a quick loan or to get some money for those items of value that you are no longer using. So visit Sportsman Gun & Pawn and get the cash that you need today!
The Origins of the Pawnbroker Symbol
The Traditional Legend of the Three Balls. The symbol of the three balls was part of the coat of arms of the Medici family, who established the Medici trading and banking empire in Florence, Italy. The Medicis were a 15th century Italian family of bankers and lenders, with considerable fame and fortune. They became so well known in the finance and lending profession that the other lenders, wanting to share in their success, adopted similar coats of arms, signs, shields, and symbols with three golden balls being the most popular. Once other merchants adopted the three golden balls as their symbol, the three balls came to symbolize the entire profession founded on the ethic of mutual trust.
Throughout the Middle ages you can find many coats of arms bearing three balls, orbs, plates, disks, or coins as symbols of monetary success.
When Italian bankers began to open branches abroad, the symbol of the three golden balls spread to the European West. It is known that there was pawnbroking in Spain because Queen Isabella pawned some of her royal jewels to finance Columbus' voyage to the New World. I wonder if the pawnbroker who made that loan knew just what he was starting?
The symbol of the three golden balls was brought to the United States from England, where pawnbrokers still display the symbol to this day.