Secular Dates

My post from yesterday raised the issue of using secular dates. It is worth noting that the Rema in responsum 51 says that he is writing in December 1546 "le-misparam." The Havos Ya'ir (184) quotes a book published in 1428 "le-misparam." The Hasam Sofer in a responsum (Even Ha-Ezer 43) discusses a case about a soldier whose death was ascertained from various sources as being on either 29 October 1810 "le-misparam" or 13 October 1809 "le-misparam."

In Iggeros Soferim, in the letters of R. Moshe Sofer between pages 104 and 105, there is a copy of a letter written by the Hasam Sofer in German that is dated 8 November 1821. I am sure that the book has other examples of this.

(I should note that while I verified and corrected these citations, they were taken from R. Matis Blum's Torah La-Da'as, vol. 1 p. 264 ff. who, in turn, took them from Kol Bo Al Aveilus.)