signet

Signet comes from the Old French signet, the diminutive of signe (sign, mark), from the Latin signum (mark, token, sign). A signet ring carried an engraved design — coat of arms, initials, or personal device — that was pressed into hot wax to seal and authenticate documents. The ring was the person. To steal someone's signet was to be able to forge their identity.

Signet rings are among the oldest known ring types. Ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seals — small stone cylinders rolled across wet clay — performed the same function as early as 3500 BCE. Egyptian pharaohs wore scarab-shaped signets. The Greeks and Romans used intaglio-carved gemstones set in gold. Alexander the Great's signet ring, which bore an image of Zeus, was used to seal state documents. When he died, his general Perdiccas took the ring — and with it, a claim to authority.

In medieval Europe, signet rings were legal instruments. A document sealed with a nobleman's signet carried the force of his word. The English Privy Seal — one of the great offices of state — was literally a signet, the king's personal seal as distinct from the Great Seal of the realm. Destroying a signet ring upon its owner's death was standard practice to prevent posthumous forgery. The Pope's Ring of the Fisherman is still ceremonially broken when a pope dies.

Modern signet rings are ornamental. The wax seal disappeared with the envelope and the postage stamp. But the word signet persists, and jewelers still engrave initials and coats of arms into gold rings using intaglio techniques unchanged in principle from Mesopotamia. The ring that was once a legal necessity is now a luxury accessory.