13C nmr spectra that approach high‐resolution quality can now be obtained on solids by using high‐power 1H decoupling (for eliminating the major line broadening due to1H‐13C dipole‐dipole interactions),1H‐13C cross polarization (for circumventing the13C T1bottleneck) and magic‐angle spinning (for eliminating line broadening due to chemical shift anisotropy).13C spectra with rather sharp lines are obtained for crystalline samples. For coals and other very complex mixtures, the occurrence of many different, but very similar, chemical architectures renders for most samples two rather broad resonances bands (the aromatic/olefinic carbon band and the aliphatic carbon band). Additional structural information can be obtained from the13C nmr spectrum if the coal has an unusually simple distribution of carbon bypes or if more sophisticated techniques are employed. Progress, limitations and propsects for solving important problems in coal science by the13C nmr technique are discussed.