The specification is not sloppy, it specifies precisely the wire format, and does expressly cover this problem of how the values MUST be interpreted. The specif

The specification is not sloppy, it specifies precisely the wire format, and does expressly cover this problem of how the values MUST be interpreted. The specification does not cover how the application should render the amount when showing it to the user, so when applications show the amount to the user they can of course still render it in a culturally appropriate way.