Nassau County, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Nassau County Code § 18½-22 defines a 'dealer' subject to the Precious Metals Dealers article as any person engaged in purchasing, selling at retail or wholesale, or otherwise dealing in any old, used or secondhand precious metal (defined as gold, silver or platinum), whether operating from a fixed location or as an itinerant. Section 18½-23 requires every such dealer to keep a register, in a form approved by the county sheriff, recording at each transaction the seller's name, date of birth, sex, race, residence address and driver's license or other government ID number, along with a description of the precious-metal item including any mark, brand, monogram or hallmark on it; the register must stay open to inspection by the sheriff's office at all times.

Section 18½-24 bars a dealer from reselling, melting or otherwise disposing of purchased items until ten full days have passed since the sheriff received a copy of the register entry, with narrow exceptions for coin buybacks from the same seller and dealer-to-dealer transfers of already-registered items. Section 18½-25 requires dealers to deliver a full transcript of the prior business day's register entries to the sheriff's office by noon each business day. Section 18½-26 flatly bars buying precious-metal items from anyone under 18, and § 18½-27 requires purchased stock to stay attached to its bill of sale and arranged so the sheriff's department can inspect it during the ten-day hold period.