Edison, NJ Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Edison layers two ordinances onto the pawn trade. The older one, Section 11-5.1 in the Auctioneers, Pawnbrokers, Junk Dealers article, makes it unlawful to carry on or conduct the business of porter, auctioneer, pawnbroker, junk shopkeeper, junk dealer, billposter, keeper of bathhouses or scavenger within the Township without having first obtained a license from the Township Clerk. That license is non-transferable under Section 11-5.3, must be exhibited on demand under Section 11-5.4, costs $15 per year for a pawnbroker plus a fifty-cent issuance fee under Sections 11-5.2 and 11-5.5, and a licensee running an auto wrecking or junkyard operation instead pays $100 per year.

The newer, more detailed regime is Section 11-16, Precious Metal and Gem Businesses, adopted by Ordinance O.1737-2010 to license individuals dealing in precious metals, gems, secondhand goods and pawn brokering and to help the Edison Police Department recover stolen property, alongside the State's own precious-metals law, N.J.S.A. 51:6A-1 et seq. Registration runs through the Township Clerk and the Chief of Police and requires the names, addresses and five-year address history of every principal, three business references, a criminal-history disclosure, and a photograph plus fingerprints of the day-to-day manager under Section 11-16.4.

The license runs a calendar year for $100 under Section 11-16.6. Every purchase must go into a bound, sequentially numbered ledger recording the seller's name, address, date of birth and Social Security number, a description of the item and the price paid, verified against two forms of identification, one bearing a photograph, under Sections 11-16.8 through 11-16.10. Dealers must report each transaction to the Chief of Police within twenty-four hours, or by noon Monday for weekend sales, and hold every item on the premises for ten full days before selling, melting or altering it under Sections 11-16.12 and 11-16.13, giving police a window to match items against stolen-property reports.