Coal

This article is about the fuel item that can be mined. For the ore, see Coal Ore. For the block, see Block of Coal. For the smelted wood, see Charcoal.

Coal
Rarity	Common
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)

Coal is a mineral item mainly obtained from coal ore. It is primarily used for crafting torches and campfires, as well as fuel.

Obtaining

Chest loot

See also: Coal Ore § Natural generation

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Coal	Dungeon	Chest	1–4	26.6%
	Mineshaft	Chest	3–8	27.3%
	Ancient City	Chest	6–15	46.5%
	Igloo	Chest	1–4	70.4%
	Cold Ocean ruins	Cold ruins suspicious gravel	1	13.3%
		Warm ruins suspicious sand	1	13.3%
	Shipwreck	Supply chest	2–8	37.3%
	Stronghold	Storeroom chest	3–8	34.3%
	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	2.2%
	Underwater ruins	Big ruins chest	1–4	81%
		Small ruins chest	1–4	84.2%
	Village	Toolsmith's chest	1–3	9.9%
		Fisherman's chest	1–3	43%
		Snowy house chest	1–4	41.2%
		Butcher's chest	1–3	27.9%
	Woodland mansion	Chest	1–4	26.6%
Bedrock Edition
Coal	Dungeon	Chest	1–4	26.6%
	Mineshaft	Chest	3–8	27.3%
	Ancient City	Chest	6–15	46.5%
	Igloo	Chest	1–4	70.4%
	Cold Ocean ruins	Cold ruins suspicious gravel	1	13.3%
		Warm ruins suspicious sand	1	13.3%
	Shipwreck	Supply chest	2–8	37.3%
	Stronghold	Storeroom chest	3–8	28.5%
	Underwater ruins	Big ruins chest	1–4	81%
		Small ruins chest	1–4	84.2%
	Village	Butcher's chest	1–3	27.9%
		Snowy house chest	1–4	41.2%
		Toolsmith's chest	1–3	9.9%
	Woodland mansion	Chest	1–4	26.6%

Mining

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

Mob loot

Wither skeletons have a ¹⁄₃ chance of dropping a single coal upon death. The maximum amount of coal is increased by 1 per level of Looting. The chance of a wither skeleton not dropping any coal can be found using the formula 2 / (Looting Level + 3). For example, Looting III gives a ¹⁄₃ chance of not dropping any coal. All other amounts have an equal chance of occurring.

Crafting

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Coal	Block of Coal	9

Smelting

Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Coal Ore + Any fuel	0.1

Usage

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Block of Coal	Coal
Campfire	Stick + Coal + Any Log or Stem or Any Stripped Log or Stem or Any Wood or Hyphae or Any Stripped Wood or Hyphae
Campfire	Stick + Coal + Any Log or Stem or Any Stripped Log or Stem or Any Wood or Hyphae or Any Stripped Wood or Hyphae
Fire Charge	Blaze Powder + Coal + Gunpowder	3
Soul Torch	Coal + Stick + Soul Soil	4
Torch	Coal + Stick	4

Fuel

When used in a furnace as a fuel, a piece of coal lasts 80 seconds (smelting up to 8 items), like charcoal. Coal used as fuel lasts more than 5 times longer than wood planks or wood logs used as fuel, being more efficient than any other use of wood for smelting in Java Edition, but outstripped by wooden slabs in Bedrock Edition.

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

Trading

Novice-level fisherman villagers have a 50% chance to buy 10 coal for one emerald.

In Java Edition, novice-level armorer and toolsmith villagers have a 40% chance of offering to buy 15 coal for one emerald. Novice-level weaponsmith villagers and apprentice-level butcher villagers have ²⁄₃ chance of offering to buy 15 coal for one emerald.

In Bedrock Edition, novice-level armorer, toolsmith, and weaponsmith villagers and apprentice-level butcher villagers buy 15 coal for one emerald.

Trades that involve coal cannot be substituted by charcoal.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Item tags	Translation key
Coal	coal	Item	coals	item.minecraft.coal

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Alias ID	Numeric ID	Form	Item tags (JE)	Translation key
Coal	coal	coal / 0	302	Item	minecraft:coals	item.coal.name

History

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding coal, commenting that it might be combined with iron ore to make steel.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100128			Added coal.
					Mining coal ore blocks drops 2-5 pieces of coal.
		20100129			Coal can be used to craft torches.
?					Mining coal ore now drops 1 piece of coal (down from 2-5).
20100219					The texture of coal has been changed. It is now more centered.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Coal can now be found in the new mineshaft chests and stronghold storeroom chests.
Java Edition
1.0.0		?			Coal can be now obtained by smelting coal ore.
1.2.1		12w04a			Coal can now be used to craft fire charges.
1.3.1		12w21a			Blacksmith and butcher villagers now buy 16–23 of either coal or charcoal for 1 emerald.
		1.3			The texture of coal has been changed.
1.4.2		12w36a			Coal is now dropped by wither skeletons, making it renewable.
1.6.1		13w18a			Coal can now be used to craft coal blocks.
1.8		14w02a			Fisherman, armorer, tool smith, weapon smith and butcher villagers now buy 16–24 coal for 1 emerald.
1.9		15w43a			Coal may now be found in igloo basement chests.
		15w44a			The average yield of coal from mineshaft chests has been decreased, and added to dungeon chests.
1.11		16w39a			Coal can now be found in the new woodland mansion chests.
1.13		17w47a			The different data values for the coal ID have been split up into their own IDs.
					Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 263.
		18w09a			Coal can now be found in the loot chests of underwater ruins.
		18w11a			Coal now generates in shipwreck chests.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of coal has been changed.
		18w48a			Coal can now be found in chests in village fishing cottages.
		18w49a			Coal can now be found in chests in village butcher shops and snowy village houses.
		18w50a			Coal can now be found in chests in village toolsmith houses.
		19w02a			Coal can now be used to craft campfires. Destroying a campfire returns 2 charcoal.
1.16		20w06a			Coal can now be used to craft soul torches.
1.19		22w13a			Coal may now be found in ancient city chests.
1.20		23w12a			Coal can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in cold and warm ocean ruins and in trail ruins.
		23w16a			Coal no longer generates in suspicious sand in trail ruins.
					Due to the split of the archaeological loot tables for the suspicious gravel within the trail ruins; coal now is in the common loot.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.0					Added coal.
					Coal can be used to craft torches.
v0.8.0		build 1			The texture of coal has been changed.
					Coal can now be crafted to make a block of coal.
v0.12.1		build 1			Coal is now dropped by wither skeletons.
v0.14.0		build 1			Coal can now be found inside chest minecarts in mineshafts.
v0.15.0		build 1			Coal is now used to craft fire charges.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Coal can now be found in the stronghold storeroom chests.
					Coal may now be found in igloo basement chests.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Fisherman, armorer, toolsmith, weaponsmith and butcher villagers now buy 16–24 coal for 1 emerald.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Coal is now found in woodland mansion chests.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.14.2			Coal can now be found inside shipwreck chests.
		beta 1.2.20.1			Coal can now be found inside underwater ruins chests.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Coal can now be used to craft campfires. Destroying a campfire returns 2 charcoal.
					The texture of coal has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Coal can now be found in snowy tundra village house chests and in village butcher and toolsmith chests.
		beta 1.11.0.4			Armorer, weaponsmith, toolsmith, and butcher villagers now buy 15 coal for an emerald.
					Fishermen villagers now have a 50% chance to buy 10 coal for an emerald as part of their first tier trade.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Coal can now used to craft soul torches.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added coal.
?					The texture of coal has been changed.
		1.90			The texture of coal has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added coal.

Issues

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

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