Coal balls were first found in England,[42] and later in other parts of the world, including Australia,[15][43] Belgium, the Netherlands, the former Czechoslovakia, Germany, Ukraine,[44] China,[45] and Spain.[46] They were also encountered in North America, where they are geographically widespread compared to Europe;[1] in the United States, coal balls have been found from Kansas to the Illinois Basin to the Appalachian region.[32][47]