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Hyperion Records recently in their notes to their recording of piano concertos by Wilhelm Taubert and Jacob Rosenhain pointed out that while the opus 73 concerto of the latter wasn't published until the 1870s or so, it may well have been composed some three or four decades earlier. This not that unusual instance keeps coming to my mind. Because something was published in 1850 does not mean it was composed "ca.1850" at least if "ca." means what it ordinarily means - so if you don't know when it was composed- just leave it blank, like the guidelines say to do.

(And especially don't just write in 1850 for the composition date entire "instead of" the publication date, as I notice some editors almost make a habit of. When this becomes a habit and you don't notice that the work in question is posthumously published, then voilà, you've just claimed that the work was composed post-death, a truly spiritual feat.)

Full scores often came several years after the publication of piano reductions and vocal scores, especially with large works like operas. However, from a legal standpoint, the "date of first publication" is the key (which obviously comes into play only for items issued in the period around 1922-23). This is why that particular field in the General Information section is "read" by the system. The traditional legal doctrine held that all extant versions of a work are considered published simultaneously with the publication of the first version issued. A number of publishers have been making claims about full scores of certain not being "published" until much later - even a century later - than the vocal score, or piano reduction. This is essentially a means of claiming what amounts to a near-perpetual copyright. They're conflating "sale" with "publication". This has been a nice trick with some works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and others. A listing of a work as being available for either sale or rental in a catalog or advertisement which can be dated exactly also constitutes "publication" - even if no copies were actually sold until three years later. That's why old publisher catalogs and scores with listings or ads which have blind-stamped dates of receipt by libraries can be very important.