Hanover County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

5-42 as anyone who buys secondhand gold, silver, platinum or platinum alloys, or gems, for resale, or who removes precious metals from manufactured articles not their own. The definition excludes retail merchants accepting trade-ins of goods they originally sold, industrial refiners buying directly from dealers, estate fiduciaries, and businesses that only incidentally recover trace precious metals from scrap. 5-45, no one may act as a dealer in the county without first obtaining a permit from the Sheriff by filing an application with full name, aliases, address, age, date of birth, sex, fingerprints and photograph, the employer's name and address, and the business location, and paying a $200 application fee; the Sheriff may waive that fee at his discretion.

The Sheriff must deny the permit if the applicant was convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude within the past seven years, or if the applicant previously had a similar permit denied or revoked. The permit is valid for one year, is renewable annually for another $200 fee, and cannot be transferred. Before a permit issues, the dealer's weighing devices must be inspected and approved by local or state weights and measures officials. 5-48 requires dealers to keep electronic purchase records, including the seller's identification and a description of each item, for at least 24 months, reporting each transaction to the Sheriff instantaneously.