The standard practice for insect specimen labels has been to use
Roman numerals for the month to avoid ambiguity. This was true fifty
years ago. However, some recommend a three- or four-letter English
abbreviation for the month (see below).
<ttp://members.aol.com/YESedu/collect3.html>
"A locality label (see below) should accompany each beetle specimen,
whether pinned, pointed, or in alcohol. The label should contain the
following information: location (state, county and nearest town or
other permanent landmark), date(s) of collection, and the name of
collector(s). When writing the date on a label, use one of the two
following formats: 11 SEPT 1993 or 11-ix-1993. If you use 11-9-93 for
the date, other collectors will not be sure if you meant November 9th
or September 11th."
<http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/pdf/labelbrief.pdf>
Gordon Uber
At 01:22 AM 4/6/2006, Douglas Bateman wrote:
The British Post Office uses something similar except that Jul
becomes Jly. I looked at the postmarks on 3 letters that I received
this morning and to my DISMAY they have used 3 methods. One has the
old style round franking stamp with the date 4 APR 2006, another has
gone through an inkjet type of franking that gives the date as
05.04.06 and the third, also with a round franking, gives 5 -IV
2006. Note that the Roman numeral for the month is also
unambiguous, which I recall as being an informal European method.
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