It has recently become popular to describe coal structure as a macromolecular polymer network. In order to quantitatively test this model and to study the influence of the physical structure of coal on liquifaction and gasification reactions, it is desirable to develop spectroscopic techniques which can be used to probe network and molecular properties. This has been difficult due to the high absorption of coal and heterogeneity of samples. We have used microspectrophometric techniques to measure absorption spectra in the near‐UV and visible using a scanning microspectro‐photometer and in the IR using a Fourier Transform IR spectrometer. Samples were prepared with thicknesses ranging from 500A˚ to 2 &mgr;m and areas to 0.5 mm2. Broad featureless absorption are observed in the near‐UV and visible and cannot be solely explained by either light scattering from the inhomogeneous coal network or the absorption of a heterogeneous misture of organic components. The IR spectra show well resolved features and computer techniques can be used to eliminte background due to light scattering artifacts.