Jewellery set with gold coins made an attractive statement of taste and prestige, both in the Roman empire and using older coins, in the early medieval world. Coins were pierced to be used as pendants, hung from necklaces or less frequently, set in rings. Pierced Byzantine coins have been found in graves in 7th century Hungary and in Ukranian graves at Maloe Perescepino whilst a mid-6th century female burial in Cologne cathedral, Germany contained a necklace with seven Roman gold solidi. Coin rings have been found in both male and female graves, most commonly in Germanic areas. Jewellery set with Roman and Byzantine coins may have been worn to show wealth and to emphasize the owner's 'Roman' identity. Images of the Emperor might also have had an amuletic or protective function.

This gold ring is set with a solidus, a coin stamped with a portrait of the Byzantine emperor Constans II. Constans was baptised Herakleios but reigned officially as the emperor Constantine. This was popularly shortened to Constans as he was only ten years old when he took the throne in 641 AD, jointly reigning with his uncle Heraclonas. His tyrannical behaviour made him unpopular and he was assassinated in 668. The hoop of the ring is engraved 'BARINOTA'. It has been suggested that this was the name of the notary Bari, but it may have had another meaning. An 8th century bronze ring excavated in Prestbury, Cheshire is set with a cast of a Lombardic coin of Romoald and the hoop is also inscribed 'BARINOTA.

This ring forms part of a collection of 760 rings and engraved gems from the collection of Edmund Waterton (1830-87). Waterton was one of the foremost ring collectors of the nineteenth century and was the author of several articles on rings, a book on English devotion to the Virgin Mary and an unfinished catalogue of his collection (the manuscript is now the National Art Library). Waterton was noted for his extravagance and financial troubles caused him to place his collection in pawn with the London jeweller Robert Phillips. When he was unable to repay the loan, Phillips offered to sell the collection to the Museum and it was acquired in 1871. A small group of rings which Waterton had held back were acquired in 1899.