I believe his intentions were pure in this case, and he did state the intention was more of a novelty than anything else - actually it was primarily a response to idiots constantly complaining "but I can't hold it in my hand!!". But yeah, does require trust on the behalf of the producer and Mike has built trust and been here from the start. I would be very wary about holding a significant amount of these, other than for collection purposes. I'd also be wary of any new people that come on the block offering various coins/bills etc. At the end of the day, you've trusted a private key to someone by buying one.