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Thermai Himerensis was founded by Carthage around 407 BC on the site of destroyed Himera, deliberately settled with survivors of that city alongside Sicilian indigenous populations — an unusual colonial hybrid that gave the town a dual cultural identity it never fully resolved. By the second century BC, with Carthage defeated and Sicily firmly Roman, the city continued issuing small bronzes under Roman tolerance, a privilege extended to compliant Sicilian communities rather than guaranteed to all.

CNS 16 is among the smallest denominations in the Thermaitan series, consistent with the fractional bronze issues that proliferated across Roman Sicily as local civic coinage wound down.