diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index d025bef1fe..6e82d11145 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 1.0.12
+ * fix toString of hint destination tokens (CASSANDRA-4568)
  * (Hadoop) fix setting key length for old-style mapred api (CASSANDRA-4534)
  * (Hadoop) fix iterating through a resultset consisting entirely
    of tombstoned rows (CASSANDRA-4466)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/HintedHandOffManager.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/HintedHandOffManager.java
index 01b7f9f34a..bb5b164052 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/HintedHandOffManager.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/HintedHandOffManager.java
@@ -464,10 +464,15 @@ public class HintedHandOffManager implements HintedHandOffManagerMBean
         List<Row> rows = getHintsSlice(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
 
         Map<String, Integer> result = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
+        Token.TokenFactory tokenFactory = StorageService.getPartitioner().getTokenFactory();
         for (Row r : rows)
         {
-            if (r.cf != null) //ignore removed rows
-                result.put(new String(r.key.key.array()), r.cf.getColumnCount());
+            if (r.cf == null) // ignore removed rows
+                continue;
+
+            int count = r.cf.getColumnCount();
+            if (count > 0)
+                result.put(tokenFactory.toString(r.key.token), count);
         }
         return result;
     }