The original designed maximum possible bitcoins to be created is:
20,999,999.9769

That's 2,310,000 satoshis LESS than 21 million. (which in my opinion is more than just "a few").

Then, due to a bug in some miners early on, some of those 20,999,999.9769 bitcoins were not mined (and therefore can never be mined). Which reduces the total bitcoins that will ever be mined even more.