Thanks Tom. DateSerial works! I use:

formatDate = DateSerial(CInt(strYear), CInt(strMonth), CInt(strDay))
masterworkbook.Sheets("shipper").Cells(7, 8).Value = formatDate

The correct date can now be returned. But why was it displayed as
'mm/dd/yyyy' since NOWHERE in Excel and my entire OS has that format at
all? So DateSerial is unavoidable when formatting date? I thought this
could be done by just setting both the cell and its value as the right
format, rather than calling another function. Doubt if I made a detour
somewhere....

Thanks again and regards
Frank