diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index e196239296f..6c6a3bc65c2 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@ Release 0.20.0 - Unreleased
                reinit
    HBASE-1387  Before release verify all object sizes using Ryans' instrumented
                JVM trick (Erik Holstad via Stack)
+   HBASE-1545  atomicIncrements creating new values with Long.MAX_VALUE
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1089  Add count of regions on filesystem to master UI; add percentage
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
index 20f1114dd18..7dfbebe1355 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
@@ -1505,7 +1505,7 @@ public class Store implements HConstants {
    * @throws IOException
    */
   public long incrementColumnValue(byte [] row, byte [] family,
-      byte [] qualifier, long amount) throws IOException{
+      byte [] qualifier, long amount) throws IOException {
     long value = 0;
     List<KeyValue> result = new ArrayList<KeyValue>();
     KeyComparator keyComparator = this.comparator.getRawComparator();
@@ -1555,7 +1555,9 @@ public class Store implements HConstants {
   private long addNewKeyValue(byte [] row, byte [] family, byte [] qualifier, 
       long value, long amount) {
     long newValue = value + amount;
-    KeyValue newKv = new KeyValue(row, family, qualifier, Bytes.toBytes(newValue));
+    KeyValue newKv = new KeyValue(row, family, qualifier,
+        System.currentTimeMillis(),
+        Bytes.toBytes(newValue));
     add(newKv);
     return newValue;
   }