Old Pawn term?

[Beans]

Not familiar with the term "old pawn", what does it refer to?

 

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[gunsil]

"Old pawn" usually refers to older native american made jewelry. People have been sold "old pawn" since the 1950s-60s because people thought they were getting non-tourist pieces that had been pawned by indian families down on their luck enough to pawn family heirlooms. It is really just a sales ploy.

 

[Mackaydon]

Perhaps I saying the same thing as 'gunsil'.
I learned 'old pawn' to simply mean pawned items that were never redeemed (the pawn loan was never paid off) and now the object is available for sale by the pawnshop.
Don...

 

[Old Bookaroo]

In older auction catalogs you will see the provenance of a piece of jewelry "The property of a lady." I believe that means the same thing.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

 

[tamrock]

I first herd the term in New Mexico in the 1990s. Old pawn is dead pawn. The Navajo delt with the trading post for more than a 100 years and would pawn anything of value there. Old pawn is a reference to the old family heirloom jewelry put in pawn and never taken out. The term has been very loosely used and misused that I've noticed. Your best to ignore the term and have a better understanding of vintage Native American Jewelry when buying, but so many sellers use the term to gather the attention of buyers and sell pieces that look native made, but are not genuine or even that old.