Coal and charcoal present similar physical and chemical characteristics. There is no standardized procedure to distinguish them. However, their differences in age and origin result in several differences in their natural radionuclide content. Moreover, charcoal can be contaminated with fallout. In this work, activity concentrations of (228)Th, (226)Ra, (40)K, and (137)Cs were determined in charcoal and coal samples in order to obtain evidence to distinguish the two kinds of sample.