diff --git a/packages/metascraper-helpers/index.js b/packages/metascraper-helpers/index.js
index 010ece9578..699e283f8a 100644
--- a/packages/metascraper-helpers/index.js
+++ b/packages/metascraper-helpers/index.js
@@ -198,10 +198,6 @@ const date = value => {
   // convert isodates to restringify, because sometimes they are truncated
   if (isIso(value)) return new Date(value).toISOString()
 
-  // try to parse with the built-in date parser
-  const native = new Date(value)
-  if (!isNaN(native.getTime())) return native.toISOString()
-
   // try to parse a complex date string
   const parsed = chrono.parseDate(value)
   if (parsed) return parsed.toISOString()
diff --git a/packages/metascraper-helpers/test/index.js b/packages/metascraper-helpers/test/index.js
index 6b17500a19..fea976e4da 100644
--- a/packages/metascraper-helpers/test/index.js
+++ b/packages/metascraper-helpers/test/index.js
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ const {
   url,
   jsonld,
   titleize,
-  hasValue
+  has,
+  date
 } = require('..')
 
 describe('metascraper-helpers', () => {
@@ -266,6 +267,11 @@ describe('metascraper-helpers', () => {
       ).be.equal('Wikipedia: #Edit2014')
     })
   })
+  it('.date', () => {
+    should(date('Jun 20')).be.equal('2019-06-20T12:00:00.000Z')
+    should(date('Jun 20 2018')).be.equal('2018-06-20T12:00:00.000Z')
+    should(date('Jun 2018')).be.equal('2018-06-01T12:00:00.000Z')
+  })
 })
 
 describe('.hasValue', () => {