Blue Paint on Anthracite Coal? Paper Discs in Anthracite Coal?

Wondering if this chunk is "blue coal" from the Huber(?) breaker?

Found it in friend's coal bin I've been "mining"

It's not uncommon to find pieces with a blue sheen to them, looks like oil on water.

Trivia: It seems to me , one of the companies used to coat their coal with something to make it blue.

Edit: Found it

Glen Alden Coal
In the heyday of Anthracite mining in Pennsylvania, many of the coal companies branded their coal. This was done as a sales gimmick. One of the most famous branded coals was the Glen Alden Coal Company's "Blue Coal" . Often the coal was dyed a color other than black. This dye also served as a lubricant to allow the coal to travel down chutes and bins more easily. When the coal traveled more smoothly, it was less likely to break into smaller pieces. Catchy slogans came with the brand names.

Dallas wrote:Trivia: It seems to me , one of the companies used to coat their coal with something to make it blue.

I forgot about that, and due to the way that one looks I'd guess that is what the OP has. The blue sheen I'm referring to is actually part of the coal.Forget the name of them at the moment but they also had little hard paper discs they would throw in the coal. The discs would identify the source.

It's definitly not a sheen, paint/dye of some kind.

Little piece of history to put on the shelf.

My former coal retailer told me that Reading stopped painting/marking their coal when the supplier of the paint stopped making it. It contained lead which was outlawed by EPA regulations and substitutes without lead didn't mark the coal as well. When you think about it you don't want addition lead to be added to the flue gases.

30 years ago I used to get coal from a friends abandoned coal silos, he had switched to oil delivery and let the coal business die. Though I can't remember the coal supplier's name, their name for anthracite coal was Blue Flame Coal. The coal looked like it had been sprinkeled with blue chalk like you use in a chalk line.

That hunk of coal is definitly from Blue Coal, you don't see that much anymore!

Richard S. wrote:

Dallas wrote:Trivia: It seems to me , one of the companies used to coat their coal with something to make it blue.

I forgot about that, and due to the way that one looks I'd guess that is what the OP has. The blue sheen I'm referring to is actually part of the coal.

Hey Rich The blue green Purple sheen we always call it peacock coal it is in the coal when it was formed pretty cool looking coal I Just got a load with some in it Some coal veins produce more then others I think the photo shows died or painted coal Reading use to Paint there's with a red dot

yes that is a piece of blue coal. save it! I have a few pieces "mined" from the huber breaker. if you know where to look you can find it still.

THE DISKS WERE PUT IN OLD COMPANY LEHIGH COAL OUT OF THE PANTHER VALLEY & TAMAQUA AREAS

I remember an ad on the side of a garage or somekind of building promoting blue coal. It's in Horseheads NY. I'll get a pic of it and post it, if its still there.

Found it. It's been there as long as I can remember.

Coal company trademarked their coal by adding color. Glen Alden breakers tinted their coal blue, Reading Anthracite speckled their coal red. Lots of other companies used little paper disks or rectangles mixed in with the coal. These were called "scatter tags".
One scatter tag that comes to mind was used at the Glen Burn Colliery in Shamokin. They were shaped like little red baseballs with the legend "Glen Burn, Ball of Fire". Some of these old tags turn up on ebay once in a while.

When I worked up at Savitsky's breaker in Atlas there was a pipe with sulfur water coming out of the breaker and if it would run over the coal for a little while it'd turn it a bluish green. It didn't change the coal at all but they sold that for twice as much as the other coal.