Thorin and the Dwarves once coal diggers?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Digging coal is a nasty, hard job, but is it a low, despised job? Does Middle-earth carry the same class connotations that England had/has?

Well, when talking to Dwarves, the implication would be not only that it's nasty and dirty, but also that there's not nearly as much profit in it as mining gold, or even iron. I don't know how Dwarves felt about "class", but it's pretty clear how they felt about wealth.