What is the correct way to write such queries in Laravel?

Question

Laravel

$NUMBER = 496354 // Value obtained from CSV

vagprice::where('NUMBER', $NUMBER)->get(); // no results $records = 0
vagprice::where('NUMBER','496354')->get(); // found $records = 1
$NUMBER = (string) $NUMBER; // can convert to string ?
vagprice::where('NUMBER', $NUMBER)->get(); // no , not found ...

And in general
$NUMBER = 496354;
$NUMBER = strval($NUMBER);
vagprice::where('NUMBER', $NUMBER)->get(); // not found ...
$NUMBER = '496354'; // found

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