Cash America International, Inc. was a Fort Worth, Texas-based pawnshop operator founded in 1983 by Jack Daugherty, who incorporated the company the following year as Cash America Investments, Inc. and took it public in 1987, making it the first publicly owned pawnshop company in the United States.[1] The company operated under the brand names Cash America Pawn and SuperPawn, and by 2007 it was the largest provider of secured non-recourse pawn loans in the United States through 499 locations in 22 states.[2]
Design and History
The Cash America wordmark was a registered trademark. The company filed the CASH AMERICA trademark on June 24, 1985, with a first use date of April 11, 1985, and it was registered on March 15, 1988.[3] The mark was registered for pawnbrokerage services under registration number 1481033.[4] The trademark was later assigned to Frontier Merger Sub, LLC, reflecting the corporate changes following the 2016 merger.[3]
In 2012, Cash America International filed a separate trademark application for a stylized version of the name. The mark consisted of the words “Cash America” with a star design used as the dot above the letter “i.”[5] This stylized wordmark was filed for retail store services featuring jewelry, electronics, cameras, musical instruments, game systems, video games, DVDs, firearms, power tools, household tools and lawn equipment.[5]
On September 1, 2016, First Cash Financial Services, Inc. and Cash America International, Inc. completed a merger of equals, creating FirstCash, Inc., which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FCFS on September 2, 2016.[6] The combined company retained the FirstCash name, and the transaction created the largest combined retail pawn store operator in the United States and Latin America with more than 2,000 locations across four countries.[6] The Cash America brand continued to appear on storefronts after the merger, with locations operating under the Cash America Pawn name as part of the FirstCash network.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
Contemporary descriptions of the Cash America logo consistently reference it as a blue and white mark. Store listings described “the familiar blue and white Cash America logo” as symbolizing an ever-present source of funds for the pawn loan customer, as well as a source for quality pre-owned merchandise.[8] The same description appeared across multiple Cash America Pawn store locations, indicating a standardized brand description used by the company.[9]
The star design used as the dot above the letter “i” in the stylized wordmark was the only documented graphic element in the trademark filing.[5]
Typography and Design
The 2012 trademark filing describes the mark as consisting of the words “Cash America” with a star design for the dot above the letter “i.”[5] The earlier 1985 trademark registration was for the word mark “CASH AMERICA” without any design element, meaning it protected the name itself rather than a specific logo or stylization.[3]
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