Rocksday

Anthracite

The highest-grade coal: hard, shiny and almost pure carbon.

Anthracite specimen
Photo: Jakec, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify anthracite

  • Shiny, nearly metallic black.
  • Breaks with curved, glassy fractures.
  • Barely dirties your fingers.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Northeastern Pennsylvania
  • South Wales
  • Quảng Ninh, Vietnam
  • Shanxi, China

Uses

Clean-burning fuel and water filters.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling.

Did you know?

Anthracite burns hot with very little smoke.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

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