Welsh, by seeing how many users keep asking for these collectible coins, perhaps it would be time to talk to theymos about this subject... Maybe there is a chance to have this on the 15th anniversary... maybe for the 20th... but if he (you two) decide it could be done for the 15th anniversary, there is enough time to do it... There are still 2 years until then. I remember that on the 10th anniversary you started working on this idea with about 10 months before the event, and that amount of time was not enough. Perhaps two years would suffice...?
I'm assuming theymos had good reason to abandon the idea in the first place. Although, I imagine theymos could potentially pick this up again in the future if they deem it appropriate to do so. They've definitely got the pulling power that someone like myself wouldn't have. I just liked the idea, and thought it would be cool like everyone else. However, I'm not very involved in the collectibles section, so having the contacts like OgNasty mentioned just wasn't there. Maybe, that's something that could be established by the time the 20th anniversary comes though. I wouldn't say it's completely off the table, but I imagine theymos will have cooked up an idea for the 20th too.
I am still thinking that one of these three manufacturers should be chosen: Casasciuns, Smoothie (Lealana) or Kialara. And, if possible, Casascius... If you want I can try to ping them and see if they would be interested in this event and also offer us some information about necessary time, costs etc.
I did contact some of these, but some of them never got back to me. I believe I remember vaguely one getting back to me, but that burned out pretty quickly. Forgive me for not remembering specifics, I've slept since then 
. In the end, I think there are much more users willing to own such a coin, than the ones not willing to, therefore, for this reason, I believe that the idea of such a collectible coin should not be abandoned.
I'd like to think so, but these sort of ideas always get a lot of attention, and then when it comes to fruition that interest dies down simply because of the privacy issues. I personally, wouldn't even like to receive the data, and would probably want the manufacturer to handle shipping, but then that introduces its own concerns. This is why I said earlier that I'm kind of glad it didn't work out, since I think this should be thoroughly planned instead of being rushed. Have everything pinned down, actually get the numbers down on who would be interested, and what their concerns with the process would be. How to handle shipping etc. Ultimately, it's a coin for the community, and therefore the community should probably have a large influence on these specifics.