The Art of Metallurgy Takes Over

When in later years, the arts of metallurgy became known this naturally took
over, but surprisingly only very gradually. These early metal rings were often
quite clumsily made and uneven in the extreme, so for wedding gifts they had
precious and semi-precious stones set into them and these can be seen
represented by hieroglyphs in Egyptian tombs. At this time Jewellery was usually
more for show than sentiment and used to express wealth. Before coinage gold
rings were used for currency and often hidden away until the owners were
actively trading.
In early Rome it was iron that was adopted as the metal of choice rather than
copper or brass as mostly elsewhere. This symbolized the strength of love a man
felt for his chosen woman, though rust was a problem.
The act of giving and acceptance of the ring was now also considered to be
legally binding and therefore enforceable. This tied the woman as the property
of the man to some views but in truth also protected her rights as bride-to-be,
and was summoned upon to prevent her from having her primary position usurped by
rivals.
Gold or silver rings were given on occasions, to show all the bridegroom
trusted his betrothed with his valuable property, and to symbolize this further,
the ring was sometimes shaped as a key rather than a normal circular band. This
was not presented at the wedding ceremony as the custom nowadays, but when he
carried her in his arms across the threshold of her new home.
After coinage gold was rapidly promoted to first choice and later in
medieval Europe gemstones were again a common addition. With rubies chosen for
their color of red like a heart, sapphires, blue like the sky above, or most
valued and sought after of all; the indestructible diamond.
In renaissance Italy silver made a comeback, and was now selected for the new
idea of the engagement, or betrothal ring. These were often highly ornate and
usually inlaid with niello, (which is a very decorative form of enamel
engraving, colored in black to stand in contrast to the bright metal) on a round
or oval bezel. And rather than traditional simple bands, they had clasping hands
emerging from the hoop at the front.
Silver became more pre-eminent briefly in the seventeenth century in England
and France when they were widely used for wedding rings at the height of the
fashion for poesy, or posy rings; this comes from the word ‘poesy’ meaning a
‘love poem’. They were sentimentally inscribed with such, around the wedding rings,
either within or without, and often faith and hope were included in the verse as
well. These were highly popular indeed, as frequent referrals to them in the
works of Shakespeare prove. Gold however, began to take over again later, and
pushed back silver to the Italian idea of engagement again, with a golden
duplicate of the original replacing it on the wedding day.

Source by http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-the-wedding-ring.html