I'll be back with clues later - if you need them.

Nancy.

TM

Annette

Nancy.

Nancy - thanks Cyn. Sorry I spoiled the fun for you!!

Just thinking out loud.

TM

Nancy.

Any help?? Nancy.

TM

Nancy, just tell me to butt out if you want! Well, no need really since it is a school night and time to close up shop. See you all tomorrow and then next Saturday.

Cynthia

Just got home from a graduation party which we left just before a heavy rain. Won't have to water tomorrow.

Annette

TM

I started out wondering what the significance of the 3 balls over the entrance meant - boring. The pawnbrokers' symbol is three spheres suspended from a bar. The three sphere symbol is attributed to the Medici family of Florence, Italy, owing to its symbolic meaning of Lombard. This refers to the Italian province of Lombardy, where pawn shop banking originated under the name of Lombard banking. The three golden spheres were originally a symbol medieval Lombard merchants hung in front of their houses, and not the arms of the Medici family. It has been conjectured that the golden spheres were originally three flat yellow effigies of byzants, or gold coins, laid heraldically upon a sable field, but that they were converted into spheres to better attract attention. So I thought, ha,Lombard banking, never heard it referred to that way, and wondered if that were true for the rest of you!! Often I am alone in the dark. lol. Pawnbrokers (and their detractors) joke that the three balls mean "Two to one, you won't get your stuff back". Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers. The symbol has also been attributed to the story of Nicholas giving a poor man's three daughters each a bag of gold so they could get married. Pawnbrokerage arrived in England with William the Conqueror, but known by the Italian name, Lombard. In 1338, Edward III pawned his jewels to raise money for his war with France. King Henry V did much the same in 1415. The Lombards were not a popular class, and Henry VII harried them a good deal. Queen Isabella of Spain pawned her jewelry to finance Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World.

Crusaders, predominantly in France, brokered their land holdings to monasteries and diocese for funds to supply, outfit, and transport their armies to the Holy Land. Instead of outright repayment the Church reaped a certain amount of crop returns for a certain amount of seasons, which could additionally be re-exchanged in a type of equity.

A pawnbroker can also be a charity. In 1450, Barnaba Manassei, a Franciscan monk, began the Monte di Pieta movement in Perugia, Italy. It provided financial assistance in the form of no-interest loans secured with pawned items. Instead of interest, the Monte di Pieta urged borrowers to make donations to the Church. It spread through Italy, then to other parts of Europe. It was really a religious divide, as noted. Crusaders, predominantly in France, brokered their land holdings to monasteries and diocese for funds to supply, outfit, and transport their armies to the Holy Land. Instead of outright repayment the Church reaped a certain amount of crop returns for a certain amount of seasons, which could additionally be re-exchanged in a type of equity.

Pawn shops thus operate on the basis of a contract that fixes in advance the 'fine' for not respecting the nominal term of the 'interest free' loan, or alternatively, may structure a sale-repurchase by the 'borrower' where the interest is implicit in the repurchase price. Similar conventions exist in modern Islamic banking. Various ways around the prohibition were devised, so that the lowly pawnshop contractors could bundle their risk and investment for larger undertakings. Christianity and Judaism generally ban usury, but allow usury towards heretics. Thus Christians could lend to Jews and vice versa.

The near-monopoly position of the Jewish lombards in finance became less prominent as various Protestant factions after the Reformation became just as persecuted as the Jews. In the 18th century many bankers and shipping agents were Quakers. Though the pawnshops were no longer manned by Jews and/or Jesuits, they were more and more often called Lombard houses, and most major port cities still have a 'Lombard Street' or 'Lombard Ally' today. American examples are San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. The term 'Lombard' for pawnshop (or pawnshop owner) was in use well into the late 18th century, thus many of these streets were named with the establishment of shipping agents in those towns.

The practice of Lombard credit is still commonly used in central banking, where central banks lend against marketable securities, such as government bonds. Modern repo (repurchase-sale transactions) are also forms of Lombard lending: one bank sells marketable securities to another (at a discount), with an agreement to repurchase the securities (typically at par) in a fixed period of time. Although the legal documentation of the transaction is that of a sale and subsequent repurchase, the substance of the transaction is a secured loan (and under most accounting standards, will be treated as a loan). Pawn shops in many countries and languages are often still referred to as Lombards.

So there you are - I tried to keep it short, but it really is very interesting, I think!! And everyone got it! I had Cynthia in on it this week, because I had a surgery last Monday, and wasn't sure how I'd be affected - I'm going back to work tomorrow, so as the kids say, it's all good!!

for everyone!!

Thanks for playing, see you next Sunday!! Nancy.

Glad to hear that you are recovering from your surgery and can go back to work, Nancy.

I had never heard of any of this. You can learn a lot of stuff here at the cottage.

Thanks, Nancy.

TM

Have a wonderful week.
Cynthia

Have a great week, all.

Nancy.