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View Full Version : Curious about a ring someone was wearing. Can you help?



Glass
29th June 2011, 08:42 PM
Yesterday I met someone who was sporting a fairly prominent ring. As I am a suspicious character...I obviously noted it and thought to myself this person might be a member of a brotherhood.

The ring was like a championship ring or something just to give people from the US a point of reference. We don't do championship rings down here in Oz so it's for another purpose. Anyway it was a fairly large ring. It was round with a convex smooth black centre like an onyx or something.

In the middle it had an old style silver cross that looked more square than elongated. One of the bars of the cross had another cross bar on it. So it was like 2 crosses.

I had a look around and found the Patriarchal Cross. This is kind of it except the one I saw looked square to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_cross

It is also called the ring of Lorraine (http://magnum-mania.com/Articles/The_Team_Ring.html).

I also did a bit more searching and found this image which is almost exactly what the cross ring looked like. THe only difference was this one was convex and not concave.

http://magnum-mania.com/images/1_1_c_full.jpg

Ok so does anyone have an idea what this ring is indicating the person wearing it was into. According to wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_cross) this cross was used extensively in the past. The knights Templar used it during the crusades.

I've looked at Freemasonry rings (http://www.masonic-lodge-of-education.com/masonic-rings.html) and while they are big and ostentatious like this ring it wasn't one of these.

The person wearing this ring is english. It could be possible that they had some military time in a past life. I'm not sure but maybe they are ex military or special forces. They could also be in a brotherhood or some sort.

Anyway I wondered if anyone out there had seen one of these rings before and could shed some light on it for me?

Cheers

Dogman
29th June 2011, 08:50 PM
Take a gander at these , you may get lucky.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1047&bih=492&q=Patriarchal%20cross%20ring&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Here are rings.

http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&biw=1047&bih=492&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=orthodox+cross+ring&oq=orthodox+cross+ring&aq=f&aqi=&aql=undefined&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=46021l48434l0l8l8l0l0l0l0l179l806l5.3l8

ShortJohnSilver
29th June 2011, 09:07 PM
The guy could be Orthodox or . I don't think the symbol itself has a sinister meaning.

Have a look at some old gold coins with them on it ... http://www.dirtyoldcoins.com/gandinga/id/c7.htm

mightymanx
29th June 2011, 10:04 PM
Well if it was a 3 bar cross not the 2 bar listed that is the Russian Orthodox church

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1017892908103&id=287348b2892f27c8de7ea746a0f9093d&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fenwickgifts.com%2freligious% 2f4257russianorthodoxcross.jpg



http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=968597970910&id=3b3124c926b49df3f766113bc0b6a229&url=http%3a%2f%2fimage.absoluteastronomy.com%2fima ges%2fencyclopediaimages%2fp%2fpa%2fpatriarchscros s.svg.png

If it was indeed a 2 bar cross it is probably Hungarian Patriarchal cross

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_cross

sirgonzo420
30th June 2011, 06:47 AM
A "doublecross", eh?

Santa
30th June 2011, 07:18 AM
A "doublecross", eh?

Good catch. :) It does make one wonder where these old expressions came from, or what they originally meant.

horseshoe3
7th July 2011, 08:33 AM
I just saw this ring on the first episode of Magnum, PI. It's supposed to be a ring that Magnum and his war buddies wore as a unit designation. It's available right now on Hulu if you want to check it out.

ETA: I just re-read the link in the OP and it looks like you already knew that.