A ring

I don't know about best but we have a local family run jewelers that buy and sell second hand.
I've been happy with what I've been paid in the past. Maybe ask for recommendations locally.

Shop around a few jewellers who buy secondhand gold. You will be aware, I'm sure, that the half sovereign will have a separate value to the nine carat mount - they are 22 carat; and that sovereigns of different dates can have different values. You could check the price on line. Gold has dropped in price in the past few weeks or so. Hope you get a good price for it.

Google National Association of Jewellers as a starting pont. I think there was an equivalent one for goldsmiths but I couldn't find it recently.

I seem to remember an episode of Moneybox on the radio advising jewellers, not the ones where you send the piece away.

Many jewellers now sell second hand rings Alie google the ones near to you.As others say, the half sov could be worth a fair bit, the year is important to that.

You could always try and sell through ebay, somebody could be looking for the year for a present ( birthday)

Engagement ring bought 16 years ago and worn for 6 months. Beautiful solitaire with certification. The local jewller who sold it for £2250 offered £200!

You could sell it at auction. Most local auctioneers include jewellery in their sales and dealers know to a penny the value of the weight of the gold in the item plus any extra value for rarity (the half-sovereign) and you can place a reserve on it, and I would. However the ring would need to be hall marked, not the half sovereign, obviously.

I tried to sell a sovereign pendant I had inherited recently, to find it was a fake!

I'll have to think about this one....

....and research it.

Most decent jewellers will give you a price for such a ring. It would be based on the gold weight however, as such a ring would only be valued for its meltdown value.
I believe your in Oxford.....there are several good independent jewellers there.

A few years ago we took some gold jewellery to a gold dealer in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter (where there are several). He gave us a price we were more than happy with for the stuff.

Wonderful, the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, KatyK. I had some bespoke cufflinks made for DH by a jeweller there ten years ago. I couldn't get them made anywhere else. As for the meltdown value, as I said earlier, there are two different carats involved, and, gram for gram, the half sovereign might be worth more than the mount. A half sovereign contains just over three and a half grams of 22 carat gold. A good jeweller should take that into account. Early twentieth century half sovereigns last year were making around £105 at our local auction house, depending on condition. Newly minted ones at the moment are selling for around £120 plus. It's possible that incorporating the coin into a ring could affect its value I suppose.

Thanks for the info about the half sovereign. The total weight is 12 grams. Back to Mr Google.

Yes it's great Greyduster and some nice places for lunch while you are there too!