[AccessD] Interesting behavior with Val()

I've read Help looking for an explanation for what I'm about to say, but
haven't found one. 
 
The following expression returns 1 if value has no numeric digits:
 
Len(Val(value))
 
I expected the expression to return 0. You can test this on the Employees
table in Northwind -- there are two records where the Address value is alpha
text, with no numeric digits at the beginning of the value. The above
expression, against those two values, returns 1. 
 
What am I missing? 
 
Susan H.