For the backstory, it could be part of Mammon. His entire body is Hell's treasury. This spell might be helpful, especially if you're familiar with the Council of Thieves AP and its backstory.
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I must admit, I also love the idea that they catch the NPC who they think is the villain, relieve him of all his treasure (including the coin), then spend the coin in town, and their next BBEG is one of the same merchants they bought their new gear from. Maybe the innkeeper gives the goblin warchief a key to their room? Maybe the alchemist sells them potions of Inflict Wounds spells instead of Cure? Betrayal is a harsh mistress, and can really drive home the idea that their antagonist could be ANYONE...Oh god, that just might lead to new paranoid patterns that could last through all tabletops games for a decade. Rigging their inn door with traps and explosives will become as commonplace to them as asking to buy 50 feet of rope and a 10 foot pole. At least if you play it well.
Forget rigging the inn door. If it's paranoid PCs you want, you're teaching them to be afraid of their rewards.
Ten years later...
GM: "You defeat the pirates! Aboard their ship, you find a treasure chest full of gold!"
PCs: "Oh no! Not more coins!"
Gold is pretty much the one thing in Pathfinder that is consistently a good thing. For many players it's the primary motivation. Making MONEY betray the PCs is the second most nefarious thing you can do to a player-- the first is making them fight EXP points.
@saturn what every they don't want i'll take :)
I'll protect them from the evil money
Could prestidigitation also change the color of the coin? Not talking about any engraved designs or shape changing. Just changing from the color of gold to copper or silver or platinum. I figure if that is possible, then prestidigitation is more than in. It'd make it that much harder to find the coin.
As for it's origins. I think it will be at least very chaotic, probably birthed from a devil or demon of some sort. Meaning that it would plot, try to cause as much chaos as possible, kill whomever it pleased and such. Primary goal would most likely be to get to the most powerful being it could. Which, should be fun in itself on who that would be. Angel springs to mind for some reason, but I do have a high wizard that made all the weird traps in a prison their trying to get out of.