diff --git a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
index f6398e16729..a71a0038507 100644
--- a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
+++ b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QueryParsing.java
@@ -216,10 +216,12 @@ public class QueryParsing {
 
   public static String encodeLocalParamVal(String val) {
     int len = val.length();
-    int i;
-    for (i=0; i<len; i++) {
-      char ch = val.charAt(i);
-      if (Character.isWhitespace(ch) || ch=='}') break;
+    int i = 0;
+    if (len > 0 && val.charAt(0) != '$') {
+      for (;i<len; i++) {
+        char ch = val.charAt(i);
+        if (Character.isWhitespace(ch) || ch=='}') break;
+      }
     }
 
     if (i>=len) return val;
diff --git a/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java b/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
index e7893b4af82..b182ed8f6b1 100755
--- a/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
+++ b/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
@@ -177,7 +177,8 @@ public class TestDistributedSearch extends BaseDistributedSearchTestCase {
     handle.put("facet_fields", SKIPVAL);    
     query("q","*:*", "rows",0, "facet","true", "facet.field",t1,"facet.limit",5, "facet.shard.limit",5);
     // check a complex key name
-    query("q","*:*", "rows",0, "facet","true", "facet.field","{!key='a b/c \\' \\} foo'}"+t1,"facet.limit",5, "facet.shard.limit",5);
+    query("q","*:*", "rows",0, "facet","true", "facet.field","{!key='$a b/c \\' \\} foo'}"+t1,"facet.limit",5, "facet.shard.limit",5);
+    query("q","*:*", "rows",0, "facet","true", "facet.field","{!key='$a'}"+t1,"facet.limit",5, "facet.shard.limit",5);
     handle.remove("facet_fields");