This could also be a good idea for highly merited posts. Show which ones have received 50+ merit so that people understand what kind of posts attract that level of attention (this may also lead to further meriting, but thats not a bad thing is it?). There are already threads that have leader boards for merited users and I have enjoyed going through some of their posts and learning from what they have offered, though most of the technical stuff goes straight over my head.
My preferred option would be a "recently merited" that would allow me to see all the recently merited posts from anyone so I could read the best posts out there first.
This would also be useful to detect abuses, as people would read merited posts and complaint about the ones that are of insufficient quality, so there would be some built-in public surveillance.
Personally, I don't need to be notified when I get merit, but that's just me. if I had to be notified, a PM would be fine.