Bowling Green, KY Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Sec. 9-1.07 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance BG2016-42 (December 20, 2016) and amended by BG2018-3 (January 16, 2018), regulates any person dealing in the purchase, sale or exchange of secondhand or antique jewelry, coins, watches, diamonds or other precious stones, cutlery, old gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals, and any secondhand manufactured article made wholly or partly of those metals. Subsection a. requires the dealer to keep a daily register, on a form supplied by the Bowling Green Police Department, of every article received and the person from whom it came, including a detailed description with any identification numbers, the manufacturer's name, and the seller's name, age, sex, race, address, driver's license number and signature.

Subsection b. requires the dealer to furnish the Police Chief and the Warren County Sheriff a copy of that day's register by 11:00 a.m. the following day. Subsection c. requires each day's articles to be kept separate, unmingled with other days' receipts, and held in the same condition received and available for inspection by City Police, the Sheriff's Department or State Police for three consecutive days before resale or exchange, unless the Police Chief and Sheriff give written permission to release them sooner. Subsection d. flatly bars purchasing or exchanging any covered item from a person under eighteen years of age.

The section reaches pawn-style secondhand and antique dealers citywide and gives police a same-day paper trail for stolen jewelry, coins and precious metals moving through the resale market.