When All Is Said

The Edward VIII coin is a central symbol in When All Is Said. Griffin opens the book with Thomas’s advert for a second one, planting its importance from the first page. It is a defining part of the plot that runs through all of Maurice’s stories and has thematic significance. Not just any coin, the Edward VII coin is made valuable by the story of Edward VIII’s abdication to marry his lover. His desire to defy tradition and face the same way as his father on the coin symbolizes the significance of intergenerational relationships to Maurice and in particular to Thomas, whose complex relationship with his father figure and his inheritance shapes his life.

As an antique, it has literal value, but Griffin uses a coin as this is also symbolic of wealth: Thomas’s loss of it represents the financial decline of the Dollards, and Maurice’s carefully guarded possession of it signifies his obsessions with accumulating wealth. His complex relationship to the values of Wealth Versus Human Connection plays out through the coin. He misleads Sadie about how he got it, and they argue about whether he should return it; he makes concessions to