I'm from an Irish family so most of my forebears had no money, and those that did had nothing of the sort of money found in the South East.
When I went up to Cambridge I was shocked by the number of people my age wearing signet rings. I assumed they were all from really posh English families. I was slightly envious in a way, that people had such a good knowledge of their own family background that a signet ring had been passed down.
It was only until years later that when discussing with other people what their signet ring meant to them, that I found out so many people had either bought them, found a crest online for their surname, or the design was just their initials or similar. I had genuinely thought all these people wearing them were actually posh and not just wearing it to try look the part.