: Also, he had no reason to believe that the Ring had not been destroyed at the end of the SA. There was no special reason to take notice of 13 rather silly dwarves and a hobbit lost in the woods.
: By the time that Frodo was nearly caught with the Ring ( by Sauron, not the nazgul-Amon Hen and Orodruin), he had grown in stature by virtue of his suffering. He therefore had an opportunity to make greater use of the Ring than mere invisibility. Consequently, he was more conspicuous than Bilbo would have been. Sam, on the other hand, makes use of the Ring at Cirith Ungol and is not noticed.

: : As to Gandalf not recognizing the Ring, it had been lost for a great deal of time. Gollum had it in his posession for (IIRC) over 500 years. It was a "plain looking" gold ring, and when Bilbo first found it, it was suggested that such small things were rather common (as magic rings go). To Gandalf's credit he did begin to suspect Bilbo's story of his escape from the goblins from the begining, though it was some time later that he gained the entire story (I believe he used sodium pentethol - Thankyou Lampoon). He also had not learned the entire history of the One until prior to telling it's history to Frodo, and later to the Council. He was not the master of Ring lore that Sauraman was. So it would have been easy to for him to overlook initially, though he was suspicious.

: As was stated elsewhere, other Rings were made by Celebrimbor and Co besides the Great Rings. One of the key bits of evidence used by Gandalf in deducing the nature of the Ring was the lengthened lifespan of Bilbo, which obviously would not have been immediately evident.

: : : (2) One other question about rings. I noticed an earlier set of postings that talked about the nine and how Sauron kept them. My question is this: How did he get them back from the nine in the first place? I mean, you don't normally want to give up something that has enslaved you and gives you all your power. Granted, they probably didn't know that Sauron could control them through the nine, but still, would they really just give them back? Or did he take them, and wouldn't that have broken them and made them useless?
: : : Josh.

: : Your answer is actually in your statement. Sauron controlled the Nine through the One. Once they had become wraiths, he had them utterly in his power, and it would be a simple matter, from that, to order them to surrender their Rings. And thus he gained even more control over them. They really had no choice in the matter, or had as much choice as they did in becoming wraiths.

: : -RR

: Yup, that just about covers it.

: Bacchus

Alright, From what I have read, and peiced together from messages on this board, I think I have a working understanding.
Still I should like to bring up a few points that seem hazy to me.
1) When the ring falls into the Cracks of Doom with Gollum, this is the downfall of Sauron, second and last. Does the destruction of the ring kill Sauron, as I think I have heard someone said(or at least how I interrpreted what was said)? But if this is so how could he not know that the ring was still in tact?
2) Sauron was master of the one ring. And the one could control all of the others. Sothis means that Sauron could control the nine even when the ring was not in his possesion (what I have peiced together) But had the ring actually been destroyed, would he still be able to control the wraiths? And wouldn't this tell him his ring was whole long before he caught gollum?