Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar (1836-1926) was a American political economist, historian, numismatist and author. He was an organizer and director of the U.S. Bureau of Statistics in 1866-69.

Biography

Alexander del Mar was born in New York City, August 9, 1836. After graduating at a Polytechnic, he was educated as a civil and mining engineer.

In 1857 del Mar was appointed director of the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, at that time a board of trade, with executive functions, among others the supervision of the commissioners of mines, commerce, immigration, etc.

In 1866 he was appointed the American delegate to the international monetary congress which met at Turin, Italy. In 1872 he was nominated by Horace Greeley's friends for Secretary of the Treasury. In the same year he represented the United States at the international monetary congress in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1877 del Mar was appointed mining commissioner to the U.S. Monetary Commission. In 1878 he was appointed as clerk to the United States House Committee on Expenditures in the Navy Department.

In 1879 del Mar published his History of the Precious Metals the labor of twenty-two years. In 1881, he published A History of Money in Ancient States, in 1885 Money and Civilization, in 1889 The Science of Money, in 1895, A History of Monetary Systems in Modern States, in 1899 A History of Monetary Crimes;” in 1900 A History of Money in America, in 1903 A History of Monetary Systems of France. Del Mar also published several archaeological treatises of great interest.

Del Mar has dedicated practically his whole lifetime to original research in the great libraries and coin collections of Europe on the subject of the history on money and finance. Alexander Del Mar died in 1926 at the age of ninety.

References

• Story of the Gold Conspiracy As Told at The Memphis Convention by the Hon. Alexander del Mar, Delegate from California, June 13, 1895

Bibliography

• del Mar, Alexander, History of Money and Civilization, 1867 (Repr. NY: Burt Franklin, 1969)
• del Mar, Alexander, History of Money in Ancient Countries, Bell, London, 1885
• del Mar, Alexander, History of Monetary Systems, 1895 (Repr. NY: A.M. Kelley, 1978)
• del Mar, Alexander, History of Money in America, 1900 (Repr. NY: Burt Franklin, 1968)
• del Mar, Alexander, History of Precious Metals, 1902 (Repr. NY: A.M. Kelley, 1969)
• del Mar, Alexander, The Science of Money

See also

• Monetary reform
• Criticism of fractional-reserve banking
• Stephan Zarlenga
• American Monetary Institute