State issued photo ID and thumbprint to be required to sell gold in Philly

[DMac]

Link to article (http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/ronnie_polaneczky/20100618_Ronnie_Polaneczky__Shop_owner_rips_new_pa wn_law.html#axzz0rPYntt00)

snip

It requires operators of pawn shops and precious-metals businesses (think cash-for-gold) to snap a digital photo of each customer and to obtain both an electronic imprint of the client's left thumb and a copy of the client's state-issued photo ID.

The info, plus photos and descriptions of items being pawned or sold, must then be entered into an Internet-accessible tracking system and uploaded daily to the Police Department's major-crimes unit.

[sirgonzo420]

"`Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhyMvQ_N7Zc

[madfranks]

Sounds like a good business opportunity for someone to open a pawn shop right on the edge of the suburbs outside the city. This is going to really hurt those downtown pawn shops.

This kind of manipulation of the market really drives me crazy, because it's impossible to plan a career or business when at any moment the city could pass a law that severely restricts your ability to compete with everyone else. I hope the guy in the article refuses to comply.

[DMac]

Sounds like a good business opportunity for someone to open a pawn shop right on the edge of the suburbs outside the city. This is going to really hurt those downtown pawn shops.

This kind of manipulation of the market really drives me crazy, because it's impossible to plan a career or business when at any moment the city could pass a law that severely restricts your ability to compete with everyone else. I hope the guy in the article refuses to comply.


Agreed. I've been in talks with some friends to get a pawn shop online in the NY/NJ area. We continually find more and more rules and regulations that push us to question whether it is worth getting into now.

There won't be a gold confiscation act coming up again but it seems they are making it increasingly harder to sell gold outside the reach of the fed's sticky fingers.

[The Great Ag]

read the rules and regulations and you will probably find they pertain to businesses that have been incorporated.

A private business should NOT be required to obey.

PMs will ALWAYS retain value, even if a black market is required to maintain anonyminity.

The Great Ag

[Grand Master Melon]

Here in AZ you have to give a print of your index finger if you're pawning or selling to the pawn shop. They don't take a digital pic of you though.

[Grand Master Melon]

Comment sections for online articles are always packed full of gems:


philly9
Tod, I'd pawn my left nut to nail your daughter!


Ah, the interwebs.

[cedarchopper]

They always treat PM dealers like pawn shops...too bad not everyone knows a market maker that does cash and carry ;]

[I am me, I am free]

I suspect this is a local effort by local LE to get a handle on stolen property more than anything else.

[Quantum]

I suspect this is a local effort by local LE to get a handle on stolen property more than anything else.


It is an effort to CONTROL THE GOOD FOLK, nothing more.

This will "stop criminals" as effectively as gun control "laws" stop criminals.

Unless it has a serial number, how can gold be identified as stolen property? "Hey, that's my 2005 GAE!" Really, how do you know?

[Twisted Titan]

The people that are buying and selling know what real money is. There will always be a market - you just have to know where to find it. I would imagine that almost everyone who holds physical understands this formula.


DING!!!! DING!!!!! DING!!!! DING!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!

Knowing what you klnow and the hour being as late as it is.

You would be a fool and half to comply with any such "law"

Take it underground and keep all the profit for yourself.

Or you can let the State and Feds Tax and regulate it away.

Your choice.

T

[Saul Mine]

Here in AZ you have to give a print of your index finger if you're pawning or selling to the pawn shop. They don't take a digital pic of you though.


When I went to a pawn shop in Phoenix the dealer demanded a driver license and social security number. Fortunately Arizona also has precious metals brokers who are not affected by such laws.