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Carrying coals to Newcastle

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on December 14, 2009 at 22:33

In Reply to: Carrying coals to Newcastle posted by Baceseras on December 14, 2009 at 16:49:

: : My understanding of the phrase "Carrying coals to Newcastle" is Coals means hot coals and you don't have to do it because Newcastle is an iron making center and there are fires burning there 24 hours a day. What does "coals" mean?

: [Coals is coals; you wouldn't carry burning coals very far in any case. Newcastle-upon-Tyne was an exporter of coal; the phrase has been recorded since the sixteenth century. - Baceseras.]
Baceseras is correct. "Carrying coals to Newcastle" was like "taking sand to the Sahara" or "selling snow to Eskimos". (VSD)

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