The price of an old ring cannot settle what wearing it means to someone.

Valuation answers one question and leaves the other untouched. What an old ring would fetch is a fact about a market; what it means to wear is a fact about a life. Trouble starts when families try to settle the second with the first, because the first is the one that can be looked up. A cheap thing can be irreplaceable, and an expensive one can be furniture.

If something old has come to you, decide what it is for before finding out what it is worth. Wearing it is a legitimate answer, and so is passing it to whoever it means the most to.