Thanks for all the advice, I asssure you I have NFC switched on (I can android beam between two phones), but not a peep out of the NFC Control app.

@oatman Having said that, it DOES work with a nexus 7! Does that mean my phone's not great? NFC works fine with android beam phone-to-phone...

@Lafunamor Just did, the two tags aren't working with my phone either - lame! What does this mean for me? :-(

I can't seem to get my ring to be read or write on either my nexus 4 or 5, am I missing something?

I have: "Normal (Classic) Ring in Titanium Normal Color Metal with a Black top inlay cover and a Transparent bottom inlay cover in USA Ring Size 10"