Carbon nanomaterials (CNs) have fascinated material scientist owing to their outstanding properties, making them potential materials for numerous critical applications. Over the years, scientists have reported several techniques for the production of CNs from distinctive precursors using various top-down and bottom-up approaches. Coal is being proven as an inexpensive, abundant, and effective carbon source for harvesting CNs with unique characteristics, properties, and high production yield. CNs derived from coal exhibit excellent fluorescence property, which can be tuned by varying the degree of oxidation, particle size, surface functionalization, etc. The fluorescent coal-derived CNs are effective materials for label-free bioimaging and selective sensing applications. In this review, we encompass the synthesis of different kinds of CNs from coal, their fluorescence properties, proposed fluorescence mechanisms, factors affecting fluorescence property, and fluorescence sensing and bioimaging applications.