Roman numeral dates

• by kkblevins

  When both the month and day are in roman numeral format, is the month first or the day? Was this bee collected February 8 or August 2?

  Posted July 1, 2013 10:51 PM

• by gc9

  Look again. Maybe roman-number-recognizer brain cells are out-shouting arabic-number-recognizer brain cells.

  Posted July 1, 2013 11:15 PM

• by gc9

  My brain also saw the roman numeral first. Two guesses:

  • The roman number recognizer is more specialized, so it shouts louder or faster when it gets a hit.

  • The lower roman number // is more common than the higher arabic number // (as a number, not as a visual symbol), so it is more-likely and its recognizer is stronger or faster.

  Posted July 1, 2013 11:33 PM

• by kkblevins

  Doh! Thanks!

  Posted July 2, 2013 4:49 PM

• by littlelocket

  Museums traditionally use roman numerals for the month only, so I'd say this specimen was collected on 11th August '73 (of course you can't be certain whether that was 1973 or 1873 (or earlier) without more evidence).

  Posted July 3, 2013 4:54 PM

• by ghewson in response to littlelocket's comment.

  I recognise the collectors, though, so 20th century.

  Posted July 3, 2013 9:13 PM