Rings cannot be seen on players, thus gold rings were often considered useless. They simply filled the ring slot in the equipment interface. However, gold rings can be enchanted into a Gold ring (i) at Mobilising Armies, giving a slight defence bonus. Un-enchanted gold rings are a slightly useful source of income for low-level crafters.
When crafting large numbers of gold bars, other pieces of gold jewellery give more Crafting experience. However, crafting gold rings is an easy way to raise the first crafting levels.
To maximise Crafting experience, amulets are crafted, providing the most Crafting experience of all the plain gold jewellery (double the gold ring's 15 experience.)