I will see if I can get that output but I haven't gotten any reply in almost a week to my last message ...

Yes, please do follow up here with any additional info that becomes available.
I find it interesting to understand how such weird behaviour, as you've described, becomes possible.
So far, I can't think of anything other than "use integer" or maybe some locale issue (both of which have already been mentioned).
But who knows what else there might be lurking about ;-)

Cheers,
Rob