In the C++ version of MiniScript, the dateTime.val function (from the standard library, which simply calls the _dateVal intrinsic function) returns -946710001 for any date before the year 1900.
Example:
> dateTime.val("1900-01-01")
-3155673600
> dateTime.val("1899-01-01")
-946710001
> dateTime.val("1898-01-01")
-946710001