Late Roman Gold Finger Ring

This wonderful  ring from Whitwell depicts a man and woman and may be a betrothal gift or a love token? The portrait is contained within a beaded border and a raised edge with a very fancy  embossed border surrounding it. It’s  ‘shoulders’  where the bezel joins the hoop,  are decorated with applied wire and gold globules and the hoops edge also has a raised border.

The ring was ‘Treasure Trove’ when it was found in the early 90’s, but only because it was found along with 6 silver ‘siliqua’- late Roman coins. Because the coins and ring together made up a ‘hoard’ and were probably hidden with the intent to recover them later, they were classed as ‘Treasure Trove’.  If found today both the ring and the coins would be Treasure, whether found together or not. There is now no need to prove they were deliberately hidden, their age and material alone qualifies them as Treasure.

The ring can be seen  at Rutland County Museum

For more info on the Treasure Act to go  finds.org.uk/treasure