New Jersey Gold Bill Stopped

By JCK Online Staff -- JCK Online, August 1, 2008

The New Jersey state legislature went on its summer vacation without voting on a bill that would have regulated how jewelers can purchase used jewelry. The bill, A2712, was tabled following a last-minute telephone campaign led by the New Jersey Jewelers Association.

The bill had passed the state Senate and was expected to be approved June 23 in the state assembly, said NJJA board member Paul Sanford, of Paul Sanford Jewelers, Somerville, N.J. The jeweler credits the phone campaign and the support of Jewelers of America for the bill’s tabling. “We’re very pleased. We made some very good contacts through this, and we’re getting a lot of support,” Sanford said. “People are asking for more information on what they can do to help and how to join Jewelers of America.”

The bill, designed to deter the fencing of stolen jewelry, would have, among other things, required jewelers to:

Keep the used jewelry for at least 14 days;
Maintain a permanent record—including name, address, and telephone number of anyone they bought used jewelry from;
Identify any characteristics of the used jewelry;
Verify the identity of the person selling the jewelry by requesting valid photo identification;
Take photographs of the jewelry being purchased and maintain the images for a year;
Deliver to the local police department a record of used jewelry purchased by the jeweler each week.

The legislation specifically excludes pawnbrokers and other merchants (such as coin dealers and check-cashing operations) whose main business is not jewelry. It’s this exclusion that NJJA was fighting, Sanford explained. “The fact that it’s singling out independent jewelers is what we’re against,” he said. “We don’t want to buy stolen jewelry. We’re not against the bill entirely, but in its present form it’s unpalatable. It singles out one industry.”

Any jeweler in violation of the bill would have been fined $10,000 for the first offense and $20,000 for the second and each subsequent offense.