I'm not sure what the best options are when it comes to physical tokens other than paper wallets. But I think it's worth mentioning that you can send Bitcoin directly to any email address from a Coinbase account. The recipient will be prompted to create an account with Coinbase (if they don't have one) in order to retrieve the funds.
That would be a good option too. Thanks for the tip.
I do not know, if a paper wallet will be the best option. Imagine if you gave someone a gift card, but before they can use it, they must first signup to some sort of service and then figure out how to transfer this money from the gift card to the wallet service, before he can spend it.
Just create a wallet for him, and deposit some money into it. Then give him the url to the site and the username and password. This way you can help him, if he gets stuck or even take back that money, if he prefer cash or something else. < He would be a shitty friend, if he does that > ^joke^
This is a good option too. Luckily, in my case, my friend is a tech guy, so I gave him the paper wallet on Saturday, along with a walkthrough on how to get started using the wallet, and it didn't take him long to figure things out.