Why advertise the Ring?

[triinum]

No: HPFGUIDX 150518

Can anyone tell, why did Dumbledore so proudly and publicly wear
Marvolo's ring after destroying the soul fragment in it? Wouldn't one
want to conceal it from Tom that another one of his horcruxes has been
destroyed? Letting him know is extremely dangerous: it will make him
a) want to make new horcruxes, this time less elaborate and harder to
recognize, and b) guard the remaining ones more closely.

There can be two answers to this:

1) This was a hint for the readers (for in a detective story you don't
just *tell* people an important plot turn, you have to *hint* first),
and we are to *assume* that, luckily, Tom has still no clue that the
ring is destroyed, even though Dumbledore has behaved so carelessly. 

2) There is a logical reason, why Dumbledore wants to advertise his
having the ring. Could it be a signal of something to someone else,
rather than Tom? Dumbledore doesn't wear it *all* the time. 

And further: Tom knows that the diary horcrux is destroyed. How do we
know that he hasn't replaced it yet?


triinum