Lol, I should have resisted the temptation...
Well, I'm afraid that identification to Cesar Nero (= 666 by the numeral value of Hebrew letters) as the emblematic figure of the "antichrist" Roman emperor who died but was expected to come back by a widespread popular legend will not count here as "intelligent discourse"...
About the monetary connection, though, it is noteworthy that the dominant circulation of Roman coins usually bearing the portrait and the name of the emperor was resented as idolatrous by the strictest religious nationalistic sections of Judaism, as testified by the denarius controversy in the Synoptic Gospels (where "Jesus"' argument rests on the question "whose money is it?"), and by the "changers" in the temple courtyard who exchanged the acceptable Tyrian money for the unacceptable Roman one... Just imagine what an apocalyptic mind could think of the Nero coins combined with the development of imperial worship in Asia Minor.
Now if you want to keep on with your "research," be sure you don't miss the other OT occurrence of 666 in Ezra 2:13.