So you are saying its even more incorrect than the article claims?

do you know that or just speculating? I couldn't figure it out at the museum.

I was curious and looked and yes, there are absolutely bills that seem to go into the framing. It's not a solid aluminum bar it looks L shaped in person.

That's not an answer to the problem - it just makes the discrepancy greater.

I'm guessing that is an illusion due to refraction through thick (plexi)glass.

Otherwise, if the bills really are where they appear, then there would have to be some partial (cut) bills along the edges for everything to line up properly.

so it's off by even more than a half mill?

It's not a shortfall.

The OP says it totals $1.5M ... and extra $0.5M

I wonder how many read the title, and assume it’s about being short. I certainly did.

I had the feeling it would be a shortfall but had enough doubt to read the article.

Is over by $500k, not short.

Well, sure, things probably look different when you’re standing on your head.

Listen, if the money is greater than the claim, another way to say the exact same thing, without even standing on your head, is that the the claim is less than the money!

Yes, but is it as efficient?

The article talks about 50% extra, not a shortfall.

Not in english it isn't.

Don't be absurd.

The amount written on the plaque is short by .5m

The comment we're all arguing about only says "50% shortfall" and does not say which side of the equation is short. So the word in that context merely means discrepency.

Maybe they did actually have the wrong idea about the story, but what they wrote does not say one way or the other, so there is nothing to correct and everyone is just picking a meaning and acting like they actually said more than they said.

English can't fabricate a missing identifier any more than any other language. There are no context rules that apply in this case to derive it indirectly, such as figuring out that "it" refers to something that was previously explicitly identified for instance, or anything like that.

Shortfall means less than the expected amount. If the plaque says 1 million, you expect 1 million. If the box contains less than 1 million, that's a shortfall. However no one expects the plaque to say 1.55 Million even if that's what's actually in the box. A shortfall claim is an oxymoron - the claim is by definition the expected value, how can it ever be less than expected? In English we may say the claim was under, or low, but not short.

There are most certainly context rules that apply in this case which clearly indicate 50% shortfall to be referring to the money.

In english, a short claim is equivalent to a small claim.