In 2013, Coincraft of 45 Great Russell Street, London had the ring pictured below for sale – unfortunately, it was sold before I could buy it! They are content with my using this material.
From research into Mithras belief and symbols on Pictish Stones I think the ring might have had significance in Mithraism – hence why I marked up a picture from a copy of Coincraft’s “The Phoenix” paper of the time.
I have decoded one of the Pictish Symbols (the Z-Rod & Double Disc) in a Roman-Mithraic context (potentially with a Persian predecessor) with three concentric circles (more like a central dot and two concentric circles) – as in the marked-up picture.
With the ring dating stated as being from around the first millennium BC, if there is a Mithras connection then it certainly predates the Roman-Mithraism version. However, it would confirm the meaning behind the “concentric circles” right across Persian, to Roman to Pictish-Mithraic beliefs.
The design content of the ring is a central dot/circle with the next element being 7 dots and a concentric circle then 12 dots and a concentric circle. Collectively these align well with the Pictish-Mithraic Double Disc Symbols (where the discs mirror one another) which could have been used to explain the structure of the Earth, Planets and Celestial Sphere beyond – at the time the Earth was considered to be the centre of the universe and the Sun and Moon were counterd in with the Planets.
Below is the general pattern of the Z-Rod & Double Disc as seen on Pictish Symbol Stones.
