Going strictly by the cryptsy and mintpal charts, is this a dead coin?
Not at all. Many just have extremely short attention spans.
Trade volume: under $500 per day
Number of coins: "too many" (20 billion, give or take) and growing "too fast" (25% for the first year)
Price follows the above, giving you the 1 satoshi rate we're seeing.
My thoughts? Yes, ZEIT is pretty much dead. There are so many other coins out there that have gathered more interest, and if no one is interested in a coin then it really serves little purpose.
I disagree with this. The point of cryptocoins is to be a replacement for fiat. Let's get real for a minute... Do we really think something like 42 coin is going to catch on mainstream?? Not a chance. Only 42 coins available in the entire world? Good luck splitting that up between billions of people. Who would want to deal in everyday transactions with that amount of decimals?
To me, there needs to be a lot of coins if this thing is ever going to be truly used and not just a "collector" item.