Have you ever seen coal in real life?

delitomatoes@lemm.ee to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 127 points –

I just realised that I have never seen or used it, neither crude oil of course, but there are more variants of it than this natural mineral that powers a lot of the world.

What led to you seeing or touching coal?

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When I was a kid, for some reason I really wanted coal for Christmas and I was diappointed that only the bad kids got it. My parents decided to mess with me one year by hiding all my actual presents and only putting a piece of coal in my stocking. I was thrilled and thought it was so cool. I have no idea why I thought it was cool, I was a weird kid. My parents gave up on the joke before I even realized that none of the presents under the tree had my name on them. I was entirely happy with the piece of coal.

Ironically, it's become one of my favorite Christmas memories and it's one of few presents I still have as an adult.

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Whoa, I didn't expect coal to look so pretty!

There are different types/grades of coal, with anthracite being the hardest and shiniest.