diff --git a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
index c369c7690cedc..37edaaf9449ad 100644
--- a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
@@ -621,7 +621,8 @@ end
 
 function maximum{T}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{T})
     isempty(A) && throw(ArgumentError("argument must not be empty"))
-    max(maximum(A.nzval), zero(T))
+    m = maximum(A.nzval)
+    nfilled(A)!=length(A) ? max(m,zero(T)) : m
 end
 
 maximum{T}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{T}, region) =
@@ -629,7 +630,8 @@ maximum{T}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{T}, region) =
 
 function minimum{T}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{T})
     isempty(A) && throw(ArgumentError("argument must not be empty"))
-    min(minimum(A.nzval), zero(T))
+    m = minimum(A.nzval)
+    nfilled(A)!=length(A) ? min(m,zero(T)) : m
 end
 
 minimum{T}(A::SparseMatrixCSC{T}, region) =
diff --git a/test/sparse.jl b/test/sparse.jl
index f21cc42db0e98..d4dfe8080e907 100644
--- a/test/sparse.jl
+++ b/test/sparse.jl
@@ -226,3 +226,6 @@ end
 @test maximum(P, (1,)) == [1.0 2.0 3.0]
 @test maximum(P, (2,)) == reshape([1.0,2.0,3.0],3,1)
 @test maximum(P, (1,2)) == reshape([3.0],1,1)
+
+@test maximum(sparse(-ones(3,3))) == -1
+@test minimum(sparse(ones(3,3))) == 1