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This article is about the mineral block. For the ore, see Coal Ore. For the item, see Coal.

A block of coal is a storage block, equivalent to nine coal, that can also be used as fuel.

Obtaining[]

Blocks of coal can be mined using any pickaxe. If mined without a pickaxe, it drops nothing.

Block Block of Coal
Hardness 5
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default 25
Wooden 3.75
Stone 1.9
Iron 1.25
Diamond 0.95
Netherite 0.85
Golden 0.65
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Crafting[]

Blocks of coal can be crafted only from regular coal, not charcoal. It is crafted in the same way as other mineral blocks.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Coal

Usage[]

Blocks of coal are often used to store coal in a compact fashion, or otherwise used as a fairly cheap construction block.

Crafting ingredient[]

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
Coal Block of Coal

Fuel[]

Blocks of coal can be used as fuel in a furnace. One block of coal lasts 800 seconds (16000 ticks), which smelts 80 items. This is ten times the duration of a single piece of coal and 119 times as efficient (+11.11%) as nine individual pieces of coal—which would only smelt 72 items. The latter, however, prevents inactive furnace use; while smelting one item with one coal wastes seven potential items, smelting one item with one block of coal wastes 79 potential items.

Note Blocks[]

Block of coal can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sounds.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Block brokenBlocksOnce the block has brokenblock.stone.breaksubtitles.block.generic.break1.00.816
Block placedBlocksWhen the block is placedblock.stone.placesubtitles.block.generic.place1.00.816
Block breakingBlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenblock.stone.hitsubtitles.block.generic.hit0.250.516
None[sound 1]Entity-DependentFalling on the block with fall damageblock.stone.fallNone[sound 1]0.50.7516
FootstepsEntity-DependentWalking on the blockblock.stone.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps0.151.016
  1. a b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
BlocksOnce the block has brokendig.stone1.00.8-1.0
BlocksWhen the block is placeddig.stone1.00.8-1.0
BlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenhit.stone0.370.5
PlayersFalling on the block with fall damagefall.stone0.41.0
PlayersWalking on the blockstep.stone0.31.0
PlayersJumping from the blockjump.stone0.121.0
PlayersFalling on the block without fall damageland.stone0.221.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierFormBlock tagsTranslation key
Block of Coalcoal_blockBlock & Itemmineable/pickaxeblock.minecraft.coal_block

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID FormItem ID[i 1]Translation key
Block of Coalcoal_block173Block & Giveable Item[i 2]Identical[i 3]tile.coal_block.name
  1. ID of block's direct item form, which is used in savegame files and addons.
  2. Available with /give command.
  3. The block's direct item form has the same id as the block.

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition
2.0Block of Coal JE1 Added blocks of coal to the April Fool's 'update', Minecraft 2.0, using a recolored version of the Block of Redstone texture. It could not be used as fuel and was only a compact block. When crafted back to coal, it would have an item data value of 32767 instead of 0, so it could not be stacked with other coal.
April 5, 2013Coal blocks mentioned by Dinnerbone,[1] after their featuring in Minecraft 2.0. These would apparently be difficult to implement due to an analogous block made of charcoal requiring a separate block ID due to "logical issues".
1.6.113w18aBlock of Coal JE1 Added blocks of coal.
Blocks of coal utilize the same texture as from the April Fools' Day update.
The smelting time for block of coal is 720 seconds.
13w18cThe smelting time for a block of coal has been changed to 800 seconds.
13w19aBlock of Coal JE2 BE1 The texture of blocks of coal has been changed.
Blocks of coal are now flammable.
1.814w11bBlocks of coal with numerical metadata variants 1 through 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay, now have no model Missing Model JE2 rather than appearing identical to blocks of coal.
14w26aBlock metadata has been completely removed from this snapshot onwards with the introduction of block states. As this block never used block metadata at all prior to this version, fifteen unused, inaccessible metadata variants of it have been completely removed from the game:
DV Description
0 Block of Coal
1-15 Inaccessible "boring" variants of blocks of coal
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 173.
1.1418w43aBlock of Coal JE3 BE2 The texture of blocks of coal has been changed.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.8.0build 1Block of Coal JE2 BE1 Added blocks of coal.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Block of Coal JE3 BE2 The texture of blocks of coal has been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19CU7 1.12 Patch 11.0.1Block of Coal JE2 BE1 Added blocks of coal.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90Block of Coal JE3 BE2 The texture of blocks of coal has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Block of Coal JE2 BE1 Added blocks of coal.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Block of Coal" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

  • Blocks of coal cannot be used as fuel for the minecart with furnace.
  • A full stack of coal blocks should smelt for 14.2 hours – over 42 Minecraft days. That is over fifty times as many items as a lava bucket. However, the player needs 576 coal or 9 stacks of coal to do this.

Gallery[]

References[]

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