diff -urN base-orig/Source/GSString.m base/Source/GSString.m
--- base-orig/Source/GSString.m	Mon Apr  8 10:49:40 2002
+++ base/Source/GSString.m	Sun Apr 14 21:34:34 2002
@@ -1663,7 +1663,7 @@
 	   */
 	  transmute = NO;
 	}
-      else if ([aString canBeConvertedToEncoding: intEnc] == YES)
+      else if (intEnc == defEnc && [aString canBeConvertedToEncoding: intEnc] == YES)
 	{
 	  /*
 	   * This is an 8-bit character string, but the other string can be