Alexander del Mar (1836-1926) who also wrote under the pseudonym of Emile Walter, was an American political economist, historian, numismatist and author. In 1857 he was appointed director of the U. S. Bureau of Statistics and 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 he 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. His works include: History of the Precious Metals (1879), A History of Money in Ancient States (1881), Money and Civilization (1885), The Science of Money (1889), A History of Monetary Systems in Modern States (1895), A History of Monetary Crimes (1899), A History of...