I don't care about the monkey, per se, it's just that I saw the inclusion of that final shot with the monkey and the coin as the bridge to the next film - the theft of another cursed coin means that the curse can go on, at least for some, anyhow (the ones that survived the fight).
I'm looking at this from the viewpoint of a scriptwriter/filmmaker.
I think the whole bit with the monkey and the coin was a standard scripting tool - a "cliffhanger" question mark for the script. Who comes back next season (movie)? Will they all die, or will they all live (sign new contracts for the next installment)? The cursed coin is the instrument for bringing back some of the principals that have been done in, if they sign their contracts. If not, well, they're dead - but if they DO sign the contracts (whatever deal they've made), they're in...
The monkey is not important, except for being the vehicle for the instrument or bridge (the coin). The monkey happened to be convenient. The vehicle could have been anyone who didn't have to sign a major multi-million dollar star's contract - if it wasn't the monkey, quite possibly it <i>might</i> have been Mr. Cotton's parrot! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />
The key is the coin, and how it explains away why someone who presumably has died, like Barbossa, could come back for the next movie.
UNLESS, of course, that Barbossa comes back in flashbacks or as a ghost... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />