MASTERCOIN™ IS THE REAL DEAL AND IS THE NEXT BITCOIN!
As a software developer, I don't agree that Mastercoin is "the real deal".
For a start, it's a square peg in a round hole. It has to "live" with the prevailing architecture of the day and cram it's data into the Bitcoin blockchain. For me, thats it holed below the waterline straight away. If it had it's own blockchain it might have a chance of evolving those meta features properly.
(You can see this if you watch the latest Mastercoin video about its new client. Basically a Satoshi client dressed up in Black and with an extra page for asset exchanges).
2nd generation "coins" like Mastercoin are more of a technology investment than a currency investement, so pick a technology that isn't ball-and-chained by a legacy network for a start. Bitcoin's value lies in it's network effect, widespread adoption, Winklevoss's ETF etc etc - not in it's network technology.
Secondly, you can hedge yourself against the opportunity cost of not buying Mastercoin anyway just by owning Bitcoin.
So, for me, Mastercoin is an interesting experiment but a dud investment. It was the first but has already been well superseeded by other 2nd generation networks that have their own blockchain which is purpose built for such meta features.
On the other hand, Spaincoin is actually a proper 'investment' opportunity. I live in Spain - it's quite a big country and one that already knows more about cryptocurrencies than most because it was here that Bitcoin got it's fits big "break" back in April 2013.
The way the devs have structured the distribution is also quite clever - only the first 50,000 will receive the full quota. So partial adoption is already "priced in", unlike Aurora coin. Secondly, the Spanish press is more laid back about crypto's because the banks have already had a right good kicking over here and defending banks is not too popular a headline.
So expect Spaincoin to receive a fairwind from the press. All this points to a potential very large rise in this coin, contrary to Herp Alpert's contention.