I pretty much answered this in the original thread, but there is something that should be mentioned here.
At that moment in time, nobody knew that Bilbo's ring was the One Ring. Gandalf only (very partially) suspected it at that moment. Balin certainly had no inkling of it. There was no real reason to connect it to the Rings of Power, at least to the uninitiated. To Balin it was just "Bilbo's funny magic ring." Almost a toy, a very useful toy, but still something of a toy. And I seriously doubt that Balin was close enough long enough to really feel any "pull" from the Ring. And Dwarves were not given to that sort of thing anyway, aside from aesthetic value, of course.
*Sigh!* Everyone seems to be raining on Balin's parade of late.
[ January 30, 2003: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]
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