File:Medieval silver brooch with inscription (FindID 196794).jpg

English: A Medieval brooch made from gilded silver, converted from a finger-ring. The ring is slender with a thin rectangular-section hoop which is shaped at the back into two clasped hands. The hoop then flares at the sides and front into a tall bezel which projects in the manner of stirrup-shaped rings. Each shoulder is emphasised by a transverse ridge which runs across the front and sides. The oval stone that once furnished the bezel is now lost.

The finger-ring forms the frame of the brooch, to which a pin has been attached, held in place by a pin constriction which has been cut away from the hoop of the ring. The pin could be described as sword-shaped, with a closed loop and a biconical collar covered with decorative circular punch marks. The loop and round-section shaft are both undecorated

An engraved or punched inscription covers the external surface of the hoop, starting and ending near the shoulder ridges. The ridges, pin constriction and clasped hands divide the space into three panels: one from a ridge to the constriction, another from the constriction to the clasped hands, and a longer panel from the clasped hands to the other ridge. The inscription reads as follows: + IOS / SAO + / SINE D. AMVR

The abraded surface of the ring has prevented a full reading of the inscription and the possible second O is particularly difficult to read. But it is clearly in French, and intended as a variant of the common motto 'I am a sign of love'. The second part (SINE D. AMVR, sign of love) is clear, and the commonest start for such inscriptions is IO SVI... The meaning of the motto must then be 'I am --- a sign of love'.

The finger-ring dates from the early fourteenth century, and the modification into a brooch appears to have been done shortly afterwards.

Dimensions: diameter 21 mm, length to bezel 25 mm.