diff --git a/experiments/data_model/java_mihai/src/test/java/com/mihnita/mf2/messageformat/DynamicMessageReference2Test.java b/experiments/data_model/java_mihai/src/test/java/com/mihnita/mf2/messageformat/DynamicMessageReference2Test.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..451e0acbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/experiments/data_model/java_mihai/src/test/java/com/mihnita/mf2/messageformat/DynamicMessageReference2Test.java
@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+package com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat;
+
+import static com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.helpers.MFU.ph;
+import static com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.helpers.MFU.sm;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import java.text.ParseException;
+import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Objects;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;
+
+import com.ibm.icu.text.DateFormat;
+import com.ibm.icu.text.DateIntervalFormat;
+import com.ibm.icu.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import com.ibm.icu.util.Calendar;
+import com.ibm.icu.util.DateInterval;
+import com.ibm.icu.util.GregorianCalendar;
+import com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale;
+import com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.datamodel.functions.IPlaceholderFormatter;
+import com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.impl.Message;
+import com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.impl.Placeholder;
+import com.mihnita.mf2.messageformat.impl.SimpleMessage;
+
+@RunWith(JUnit4.class)
+@SuppressWarnings("static-method")
+public class DynamicMessageReference2Test {
+	// Dynamic References
+	// https://github.com/unicode-org/message-format-wg/issues/181
+
+	static private final String LOCALE_ID = "en";
+	static private final Locale LOCALE = Locale.forLanguageTag(LOCALE_ID);
+
+	static {
+		Placeholder.CUSTOM_FORMATTER_FUNC.put("DATETIME_RANGE", new DateTimeRange());
+		Placeholder.CUSTOM_FORMATTER_FUNC.put("NOW", new DateTimeNow());
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void test() {
+		// A calendar object
+		Message.VARIABLES.put("var_start", new GregorianCalendar(2019, Calendar.MAY, 17));
+		// Milliseconds
+		Message.VARIABLES.put("var_end", new GregorianCalendar(2021, Calendar.AUGUST, 23).getTimeInMillis());
+
+		Placeholder ph1 = ph("range", "DATETIME_RANGE", "start", "m:msg_start", "end", "$var_end", "skeleton", "y");
+		Placeholder ph2 = ph("range", "DATETIME_RANGE", "start", "$var_start", "end", "$var_end", "skeleton", "y");
+		Placeholder ph3 = ph("range", "DATETIME_RANGE", "start", "$var_name", "end", "f:NOW", "skeleton", "y");
+		StringBuffer messageRef = new StringBuffer("m:msg_start");
+		Message.VARIABLES.put("var_name", messageRef); // var_name contains a ref to a message
+
+		SimpleMessage msg_start = sm("msg_start", LOCALE, "1970");
+		SimpleMessage msg_1 = sm("msg_1", LOCALE, "Years ", ph1);
+		SimpleMessage msg_2 = sm("msg_2", LOCALE, "Years ", ph2);
+		SimpleMessage msg_3 = sm("msg_3", LOCALE, "Years ", ph3);
+
+		Message.RES_MANAGER.put(msg_start.id(), msg_start);
+		Message.RES_MANAGER.put(msg_1.id(), msg_1);
+		Message.RES_MANAGER.put(msg_2.id(), msg_2);
+		Message.RES_MANAGER.put(msg_3.id(), msg_3);
+
+		Message message;
+
+		message = Message.RES_MANAGER.get("msg_start");
+		assertEquals("1970", message.format(null));
+
+		message = Message.RES_MANAGER.get("msg_1");
+		assertEquals("Years 1970 – 2021", message.format(null));
+
+		message = Message.RES_MANAGER.get("msg_2");
+		assertEquals("Years 2019 – 2021", message.format(null));
+
+		message = Message.RES_MANAGER.get("msg_3");
+		assertEquals("Years 1970 – 2021", message.format(null));
+	}
+
+}
+
+/**
+ * Implementing the {@code DATETIME_RANGE} custom function
+ *
+ * <p>Normally in a separate file, in a shared folder,
+ * but here to show that things are really isolated,
+ * and what custom functions belong with what tests</p>
+ */
+class DateTimeRange implements IPlaceholderFormatter {
+
+	// This is extremely dodgy proposition.
+	// Parsing "something that looks like a date / time" in a random locale,
+	// and input by some random translator is just asking for trouble.
+	// But this is to show that ES can do what EZ does, as good or as bad.
+	@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
+	long hackParseDateTime(String s, String locale, Map<String, String> options) {
+		String skeleton = options.get("skeleton");
+		DateFormat df = SimpleDateFormat.getInstanceForSkeleton(skeleton, ULocale.forLanguageTag(locale));
+
+		try {
+			Date tmpDate = df.parse(s);
+			// We assume that "absurd" values are not real dates but milliseconds
+			if (tmpDate.getYear() > -2000 && tmpDate.getYear() <= 5000)
+				return tmpDate.getTime();
+		} catch (ParseException e) {
+		}
+
+		// Parsing as a date failed, we try parsing it as milliseconds
+		try {
+			return Long.parseLong(s);
+		} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
+			return 0;
+		}
+	}
+
+	Object hackyEval(String s, Object value, String locale, Map<String, String> options) {
+		if (s.startsWith("f:")) { // function ref
+			IPlaceholderFormatter funcName = Placeholder.CUSTOM_FORMATTER_FUNC.get(s.substring(2));
+			String val = funcName.format(value, locale, options);
+			return hackyEval(Objects.toString(val), value, locale, options);
+		} else if (s.startsWith("m:")) { // message ref
+			Message msg = Message.RES_MANAGER.get(s.substring(2));
+			return hackyEval(msg.format(null), value, locale, options);
+		} else if (s.startsWith("$")) { // var ref
+			Object obj = Message.VARIABLES.get(s.substring(1));
+			if (obj instanceof CharSequence) { // if it's a string we try to eval deeper
+				return hackyEval(((CharSequence) obj).toString(), value, locale, options);
+			} else {
+				return obj;
+			}
+		}
+		return s;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * The value, locale, options are there to pass when formatting referred messages.
+	 * But I'm cheating a bit here to make the implementation simpler.
+	 * There is an example of that in DynamicMessageReferenceTest.
+	 */
+	long stringToLong(String s, Object value, String locale, Map<String, String> options) {
+		if (s == null || s.isEmpty()) {
+			return 0;
+		}
+
+		Object obj = hackyEval(s, value, locale, options);
+		if (obj instanceof Date) {
+			return ((Date) obj).getTime();
+		}
+		if (obj instanceof Calendar) {
+			return ((Calendar) obj).getTimeInMillis();
+		}
+		if (obj instanceof Long) {
+			return ((Long) obj);
+		}
+		if (obj instanceof String) {
+			try {
+				long result = hackParseDateTime((String) obj, locale, options);
+				return result;
+			} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
+				return 0;
+			}
+		}
+
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public String format(Object value, String locale, Map<String, String> options) {
+		long start = stringToLong(options.get("start"), value, locale, options);
+		long end = stringToLong(options.get("end"), value, locale, options);
+		String skeleton = options.get("skeleton");
+
+		DateInterval di = new DateInterval(start, end);
+		DateIntervalFormat dif = DateIntervalFormat.getInstance(skeleton, ULocale.forLanguageTag(locale));
+		return dif.format(di);
+	}
+}
+
+/**
+ * Implementing the {@code NOW} custom function
+ *
+ * <p>This is if we want to share and reuse it for other date/time formatters.
+ * Otherwise we can consider it a special string value recognized by {@code DATETIME_RANGE}.</p>
+ */
+class DateTimeNow implements IPlaceholderFormatter {
+	@Override
+	public String format(Object value, String locale, Map<String, String> options) {
+		return Long.toString(new Date().getTime());
+	}
+}