If I wanted to create my own altcoin, what is the easiest/fastest/cheapest way to do it?
By "create" here I mean a coin I could give to my friends, offer to trade for other altcoins, and store in a wallet.
You should ask a developer who has knowledge about smart contract and crypto industry. If you want to create collectible items by using blockchain then NFTs are the better option for you. NFT is unique and they have collective value while altcoin can be trash if there aren't any unitalities. On the other hand NFT can represent anything significant, it can be a time, place or anything. It will remain in the blockchain as long as that blockchain exist so it is a great idea to use NFT instead of an altcoin if you want to distribute something that can really have some value.