diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index e4ef64ceea..ef8014115d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 3.9
+ * cqlsh: Fix handling of $$-escaped strings (CASSANDRA-12189)
  * Fix SSL JMX requiring truststore containing server cert (CASSANDRA-12109)
 Merged from 3.0:
  * NullPointerExpception when reading/compacting table (CASSANDRA-11988)
diff --git a/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py b/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
index 70e12d4199..c01e441444 100644
--- a/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
+++ b/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ JUNK ::= /([ \t\r\f\v]+|(--|[/][/])[^\n\r]*([\n\r]|$)|[/][*].*?[*][/])/ ;
 <stringLiteral> ::= <quotedStringLiteral>
                   | <pgStringLiteral> ;
 <quotedStringLiteral> ::= /'([^']|'')*'/ ;
-<pgStringLiteral> ::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$)|[^$])*\$\$/;
+<pgStringLiteral> ::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$).)*\$\$/;
 <quotedName> ::=    /"([^"]|"")*"/ ;
 <float> ::=         /-?[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/ ;
 <uuid> ::=          /[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}/ ;
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ JUNK ::= /([ \t\r\f\v]+|(--|[/][/])[^\n\r]*([\n\r]|$)|[/][*].*?[*][/])/ ;
             | "false"
             ;
 
-<unclosedPgString>::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$)|[^$])*/ ;
+<unclosedPgString>::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$).)*/ ;
 <unclosedString>  ::= /'([^']|'')*/ ;
 <unclosedName>    ::= /"([^"]|"")*/ ;
 <unclosedComment> ::= /[/][*].*$/ ;