Also IIRC Bad Penny was the name of one of the Villains you could come across in the Hero Side Bank Missions.
Definitely not the same character (CoH's Bad Penny was a man, for one thing, and his background was that he was actually a penny - as in the coin - brought to life and transformed into a humanoid shape by a misfiring Circle of Thorns spell), but possibly named with him in mind.
This book sounds interesting. I'll have to see if I can find it where I am (which is in France, while I still speak mainly English).