Coal

Coal lumps are items mainly obtained by harvesting coal ore blocks. Their main uses are as a fuel or crafting torches.

Charcoal is an alternative to coal obtained from smelting wood. It has the same uses as normal coal, except it cannot be traded with villagers or crafted into a block of coal. Coal and charcoal also cannot stack together.

Obtaining
The main difference between coal and charcoal is in the methods of obtaining.

Mining
Coal ore mined using a pickaxe will drop 1 unit of coal. If the pickaxe is enchanted with Fortune, it may drop an extra unit per level of Fortune, up to a maximum of 4 with Fortune III.

Compound creation
Charcoal can be created from its base elements, using the compound creator.

Wither Skeletons
A wither skeleton have a $1/3$ chance of dropping a coal lump upon death, and amounts and chances increases by the Looting enchantment.

Lab table ingredient
Charcoal is one of the lab table ingredients needed to produce the heat block.

Fuel
When used in a furnace as a fuel, a coal lump or piece of charcoal lasts 80 seconds (which smelts up to 8 items). Coal/charcoal used as fuel lasts more than 5 times longer than wood planks or wood logs used as fuel.

Coal and charcoal are also the only fuels accepted by powered minecarts. They provide approximately four minutes of transit each.

Trading
Villager fishermen, armorers, tool smiths and weapon smiths buy 16-24 coals for one emerald as part of their first tier trades. Butchers buy 16-24 coals for one emerald as part of their second tier trades.

Data values
Coal and charcoal share the same ID name, which is, but charcoal has a data value of 1.