[General] To coin one's heart's blood into gold

[gedtenar]

Hello, I'm here to ask about an idiom, I suppose. Maybe it's a rhetorical figure just used once. It's in a story by Elizabeth Gaskell.

"My father sent to Carlisle for doctors, and would have coined his heart’s blood into gold to save her, if that could have been"

Can you help me with the meaning of "coined his heart's blood into gold"? Does it mean to turn it into gold? Or maybe pawn it, but I don't think so.

Thank you!

GT

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

"to coin" means "to make a coin" or "to mint". So, had it been possible, the father would have arranged for his own blood to be turned into money in order to pay the doctors, if the money would have helped to save the unspecified "her".

Google "definition of to coin verb".

 

[gedtenar]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

"to coin" means "to make a coin" or "to mint". So, had it been possible, the father would have arranged for his own blood to be turned into money in order to pay the doctors, if the money would have helped to save the unspecified "her".

Google "definition of to coin verb".

Thank you very much for your answer! The thing is... he had the means. So it's hard to think in terms of money to understand the idiom or expression.
I learned another thing thanks to your post: "to mint".
Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

It doesn't matter that he already had the means to pay the doctors. It's simply used to demonstrate that he would do anything to pay for her to get better.