Yes, exactly this.

The point of them is, it's a cheap conversation piece.  Even if they were worth 5 BTC each, some people would never bother to redeem them.  But the fact that it has SOME value, regardless of the AMOUNT of value, piques people's interest.  Those people will be interested whether it's only 0.1 BTC or whether it is 5 BTC.

And people who want to give away 1 BTC coins can just buy the "real deal" casascius coins and give those away.  There's no reason those coins couldn't be used in the same manner.

What about a 0.01 BTC dabloon to be thrown out at Martis Gras parade? People collect them like crazy.

What's the cheapest we could get a token for?

Just to be clear; I dont really oppose the idea of 0.1 BTC coins (though I think the 'full option' 1BTC coins make more sense, but choice is good), I just oppose the idea of making those coins expire , particularly if they expire long before they've had any chance to appreciate in value enough to make redeeming more than just an exercise in futility.

I clicked "Depends on price", but I wouldn't want a lot of them. the hologram seal really is the cool feature of these coins, making them valuable.

I'm really waiting for the new series of 1 BTC coins. I wanted to buy a lot of the old ones at 1.20+shipping, but the price was raised and I ended up waiting for the new series. Even if Bitcoin should rise by quite a bit again, they're valuable enough to be cool but cheap enough to give away every now and then (though not at 1.80 a piece, that's too much for me).

So if the choice is to either do a cheap one or focus on the new 1 BTC series, please focus on the new 1 BTC series! That's what people are waiting for. And that's what I would use to get people into Bitcoin, given that they are reasonably priced.

I would cover them with a hologram, but they would be too easy to read with any kind of ray that is reflected by the metal.  The engraving would change the shape of the metal and would be detectable.  So the hologram would be poor assurance that the key has not been read.

Compare to my regular coins - I am using inkjet on paper - which I think would be much more difficult to read from the outside.

Interesting, didn't know you used inkjet on paper.  Does that mean the coins aren't waterproof, or does the hologram hold a seal good enough to assure that the paper doesn't get wet?

On the upside, it means that the hologram couldn't easily be floated off the coin without leaving a trace - you'd also ruin the private key on the paper!

I still think cheap coins (0.10 or 0.25) with a simple protection (gold scratch-off) would be best.

They do make waterproof adhesive lables that can be run through an inkjet(i do need to get that up in my thread) if waterprofing is desireable. Did you give the coins a test in your laser yet?

I'd probably buy 24 if they were reasonably priced and I could get them before Hanukkah. 8 days, 3 kids... plus they could play dreidel with bitcoins. Awesome!

0.2 BTC coin isn't too bad a price.  I probably couldn't buy 50 of them though.  But it does sound like a good idea...