>I have become the 'victim' of some unforseen behavior convering the 'VAL' function. The return from Val('1234567A') is 1234567 and the return from Val('1234567E') is 1234567 but the return from VAL('1234567E01') is 12345670. In other words, the val function interpets the letter 'E' followed by numbers as being scientific notation. Is this a feature or a bug?

It is a feature. 'E' has special meaning of exponantial as you discovered.
?10E4 && 100000 - 10*10^4
Cetin