diff --git a/src/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKey.java b/src/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKey.java
index e44ad758..394c5f43 100644
--- a/src/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKey.java
+++ b/src/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKey.java
@@ -239,10 +239,15 @@ public class ECKey implements Serializable {
 
     /** Returns a 32 byte array containing the private key. */
     public byte[] getPrivKeyBytes() {
-        // Getting the bytes out of a BigInteger gives us an extra null byte on the end (for signedness), so snip
-        // it off here.
+        // Getting the bytes out of a BigInteger gives us an extra zero byte on the end (for signedness)
+        // or less than 32 bytes (leading zeros).  Coerce to 32 bytes in all cases.
         byte[] bytes = new byte[32];
-        System.arraycopy(priv.toByteArray(), 1, bytes, 0, 32);
+
+        byte[] privArray = priv.toByteArray();
+        int privStart = (privArray.length == 33) ? 1 : 0;
+        int privLength = Math.min(privArray.length, 32);
+        System.arraycopy(privArray, privStart, bytes, 32 - privLength, privLength);
+
         return bytes;
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKeyTest.java b/tests/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKeyTest.java
index acd75876..05686312 100644
--- a/tests/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKeyTest.java
+++ b/tests/com/google/bitcoin/core/ECKeyTest.java
@@ -79,4 +79,24 @@ public class ECKeyTest {
         assertEquals(privkey, key.getPrivateKeyEncoded(NetworkParameters.testNet()).toString());
         assertEquals(addr, key.toAddress(NetworkParameters.testNet()).toString());
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void base58Encoding_leadingZero() throws Exception {
+        String privkey = "91axuYLa8xK796DnBXXsMbjuc8pDYxYgJyQMvFzrZ6UfXaGYuqL";
+        ECKey key = new DumpedPrivateKey(NetworkParameters.testNet(), privkey).getKey();
+        assertEquals(privkey, key.getPrivateKeyEncoded(NetworkParameters.testNet()).toString());
+        assertEquals(0, key.getPrivKeyBytes()[0]);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void base58Encoding_stress() throws Exception {
+        // Replace the loop bound with 1000 to get some keys with leading zero byte
+        for (int i = 0 ; i < 20 ; i++) {
+            ECKey key = new ECKey();
+            ECKey key1 = new DumpedPrivateKey(NetworkParameters.testNet(),
+                    key.getPrivateKeyEncoded(NetworkParameters.testNet()).toString()).getKey();
+            assertEquals(Utils.bytesToHexString(key.getPrivKeyBytes()),
+                    Utils.bytesToHexString(key1.getPrivKeyBytes()));
+        }
+    }
 }