<font size=9> 50mm</font> 50mm
<font size=9><big> 50mm</big></font> 50mm
You're right, but you can defeat it with the <big> command. You can put multiple bigs in it too:
<font size=9><big><big><big> 50MM</big></big></big></font> 50MM
Cool. Hope the powers-that-be don’t catch the work-around.