Please help me identify an object found on a North Wales beach

[Anonymouse2019]

Very recently we found this object on a beach in North Wales. We brought it home (I know we shouldn't really). The more we look at it, the more interested we become.

I'll post some photos from different angles. It's just over 10cm long but only weighs 35g.

Does anyone know what it might be? We've tried numerous Google Lens searches which is fascinating and thrown up alsorts of possibilities like Viking tools, but at only 35g it can't really be metal I'm assuming.

It's probably wood, very old wood, but why is it black and could it be from something intriguing like a shipwreck? How could we even try to find out? Is there a company who can take a sample to analyse it, and would it even be worth it?

So many (mostly rhetorical) questions!

Yeah, looks very similar to this piece of Whitby jet https://www.fossils-uk.com/new-in-c40/fossils-c208/46-grams-whitby-jet-gem-grade-fossil-wood-from-whitby-north-yorkshire-england-r569-whitby-jet-gem-grade-fossil-jurassic-wood-p13037

There's a page about sea coal here. https://yesdirt.com/what-is-sea-coal/ It's not a specific type of coal, such as anthracite or lignite, but named according to where it is found, or transported. In London, it originally referred to coal from Newcastle. Up there it meant coal found on the beach, which would have a surface shaped by the sea. It would probably be bituminous coal which is dirtier than anthracite from South Wales. Your bit doesn't look like that, and is the wrong geology again. Unless it fell off a ship. Or floated from somewhere with the right geology.
There used to be an interactive geological map of Britain but I can't find it to have a look at North Wales. If there is the same rock as at Whitby, the Victorians would have found it, as inferior jet was coming from Spain for the mourning jewellery market. My Nana had to make do with black glass. (I can't convince my sister it is not jet!)
I think, on the whole, yours is jet. You could keep it as an interesting geological specimen, burn it, or get in touch with a Whitby jeweller to convert it into several pieces of jewellery.

Just boring old sea coal OP, sorry.

I was hoping it was a meteorite

Crocodile Rock

Thank you for all the replies!

Last night, I emailed Llandudno museum and also the Earth Sciences department at the Natural History Museum. I haven't heard back from either yet but will update if I do.

It could be sea coal or Whitby jet. I doubt we'd want to pay a lot to have a sample analysed.

I'm not on social media so Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok are not options unfortunately. Thanks for the suggestions though, that's fab!