Silver, 2.25 grams, 21.32 mm. 3rd-5th century AD. The ring has a plain silver D-section shank supporting a soldered silver disc.The disc's surface bears the classic chi-rho device with punched roundels on the outer edge. The device is an early christogram, used as a symbol to refer to Christ; it is formed from the Greek letters chi and rho which are the first two letters of the Greek word khristos, 'annointed'. It was adopted as an official symbol during the reign of Constantine after he saw a 'heavenly sign' in the sky before the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, the implication being that the chi-rho was the holy sign responsible for the Emperor's victory. By the early 5th century the motif had been adopted as an official symbol; it was incorporated into the mosaic floors of the villas at Hinton St. Mary and Lullingstone. This ring is in the tradition of the famous 'Brentwood Ring', a gold seal ring believed to have been among the oldest objects in Britain to bear this symbol, although this example does not have the fully seriffed form and reversed orientation of the monogram on the Brentwood example. Reference: Johns, C. The Jewellery of Roman Britain, London, 1996, p.67. Provenance: from an old English collection, found continental Europe. Extremely fine condition.