# Any case where MM-DD-YY dating has cost money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2023, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594 "2023-09-23T11:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/121 "2023-10-01T20:24:52Z")
Yes, I believe so. I just mentioned that we just renewed my son’s passport. It had a little more than a year to go before it expired. We did it now because it’s difficult to renew a child’s passport — it has to be done in person, with both parents present. I figured our work and his school schedules made this the optimal time to get it done, even though it was way early. It went through fine. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/122 "2023-10-02T05:30:31Z")
Well, I went and got new passport pictures and started filling out the form. I have an appointment to submit it at the Service Canada office a week and a half from now, after payday so I can pay the $160 fee. The form specifies how dates are to be formatted—and it’s all ISO 8601! Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/123 "2023-10-02T07:42:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When radio comms are flaky, delivering canned messages in an expected format and only in an expected format greatly facilitates accuracy. That’s it exactly. Messages in an expected format, that can be delivered quickly (as all the abbreviations indicate), are important; especially in northern Ontario, where the geography can prevent clear reception to radio/cell towers. I’ve had radio and cell cut out in northern Ontario before, so short and brief, with everything necessary, works well, before the next cutout. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/124 "2023-10-02T11:12:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, why? I think the movement towards a global community requires as much standardization as possible. Other than that, I have no compelling feelings of any kind. The metric system, however, is a totally different story. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/125 "2023-10-03T05:51:10Z")
I just rad across discussion of a spam message elsewhere… first time I’ve ever seen a date formatted with the _year_ in the middle… [https://reddit.com/r/funny/s/6EychZn1eJ](https://reddit.com/r/funny/s/6EychZn1eJ) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/126 "2023-10-03T14:48:46Z")
True. Although like all things in scam-spam, the mistakes are deliberate to draw in the marks who think it’s real or who think they can out-smart the stupid scammers to profit while also repelling the smarter folks who know it’s a no-win scam. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/127 "2023-10-17T14:49:29Z")
I don’t know of any specific examples, but in Canada any ambiguous date, such as 12-10-2023, will legally be read as DD-MM-YYYY if there is any dispute over the meaning. I expect that this has caused loss of money to somebody at some time. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2023, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/128 "2023-10-20T06:26:32Z")
That’s new to me. Is there some sort of banking regulation there, especially since the federal government seems to be ‘strongly encouraging’ YYYY-MM-DD? ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594/129 "2023-10-22T23:03:20Z")
YYYY-MM-DD is the official Canadian standard and is used by the Canadian government for accounting entries (my area of experience). IIRC the default legal interpretation was actually something I came across while digging through old Acts of Parliament while researching a financial issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-case-where-mm-dd-yy-dating-has-cost-money/990594.md?page=6)