This isn't technically a "
fake", or even a "
replica". It's a legal tender* coin from the
Cook Islands, which just happens to resemble an ancient coin. It's no more a "
fake" than the
Italian or
Greek coins of the 20th century that similarly "copy" ancient coin designs.
If you
Google "7k
Roman Empire series", you'll find this is just one of half a dozen or more "coins", commemorating various
Roman emperors form
Julius Caesar to
Valentinian III. The company that seems to have authorized their production, 7K Metals, has made flashy YouTube videos about each one.
* - One should not blame the
Cook Islands government for issuing these coins. Countries like the
Cook Islands are used as flags of convenience by private mints to legitimize the various "products" the
mint's marketing departments dream up. Coin collectors want to collect "coins", not "medals" or "rounds", so the mints that make this junk need to find somebody somewhere to slap a legal tender clause on their products, so they can be marketed as "coins". Sometimes, the less scrupulous mints don't even bother asking permission from the government that theoretically "issued" such coins, on the theory that nobody would ever bother actually contacting the
Cook Islands government to find out if the "coins" really were legal tender.
7k, the company that sells these "coins" is a mass-marketing company. The modus operandi of such companies is to get you on their mailing list, then try to keep you on their mailing list at all costs while they regularly send you more and more products (and charge your credit card for them). Their perfect customer is one that falls for the slick marketing, doesn't read the
fine print of the scheme, and is then too timid, too proud or too apathetic to go through the convoluted process of cancelling themselves. On that basis, one can assume that the half-dozen or so coins issued to date are just the first in a long long series, which will be dragged out until it's no longer economically viable to continue. There are, after all, hundreds of emperors to choose from - not to mention all the other
members of the imperial families.