This ring would have been used as a signet, pressed into hot wax to seal a letter or packet. Personal seals (secreta) provided an essential legal safeguard and were used to witness documents such as wills, deeds of gift, loans and commercial documents, personal letters and land indentures. A letter from Lord Berengario in Verona in 906 underscores the importance of the signet:

‘So that this may be more truly believed and more faithfully observed, we order this to be sealed with our ring, confirming it with our own hand’.

Signets could be engraved with a coat of arms for those entitled to bear them, with a personal device or simply with an initial letter. The bezel of this ring is engraved with a chalice, used in the Christian mass to hold communion wine, and with a communion wafer. The inscription 'ana maria' (or possibly 'ave maria' - Hail Mary) inside the hoop may refer to the Virgin Mary and her mother Anne. The ring may therefore have belonged to a priest or other church figure.

The Tau crosses on the shoulders of this ring are an ancient Christian symbol, possibly derived from the Egyptian ankh. It is the symbol of St Anthony Abbot, an Egyptian hermit and swineherd of the third century AD. The Tau cross is said to represent the crutch which he used to control his herd. The resemblance of the Tau to a cross led to it being ascribed a mystical significance. St Anthony was believed to cure ergotism, or St Anthony's fire (a neurological illness caused by the ergot fungus which can grow on mouldy rye grain) and to protect the faithful against pestilence and poisoning. He was the patron saint of the poor and sick and of knights, butchers and brushmakers. A ring bearing the symbol of St Anthony would confer the protection of the saint on the wearer.