Fresh article (yesterday) from Ivestopedia. Author seems to be extremely out of date, but thought it's worth sharing since the Investopedia is considered somewhat reliable/serious investment dictionary.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/121014/5-most-important-virtual-currencies-other-bitcoin.asp
So the top 5 is:
- Litecoin
- Darkcoin
- Peercoin
- Dogecoin
- Primecoin
Interesting, investopedia put out on article on alternate currencies.
Well I'm not in disagreement on the coins put on this list that said there are some other coins out there that are also interesting.
The title might be a bit off though since it considers coins only separate from Bitcoin, but not coins like Mastercoin maidsafe etherum etc.