diff --git a/bitcoin/src/crypto/key.rs b/bitcoin/src/crypto/key.rs
index 9c0abb3025..81849f3c1b 100644
--- a/bitcoin/src/crypto/key.rs
+++ b/bitcoin/src/crypto/key.rs
@@ -1036,7 +1036,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for ParsePublicKeyError {
         use ParsePublicKeyError::*;
         match *self {
             Encoding(ref e) => write_err!(f, "string error"; e),
-            InvalidChar(ref char) => write!(f, "hex error {}", char),
+            InvalidChar(ref e) => write_err!(f, "hex decoding"; e),
             InvalidHexLength(got) =>
                 write!(f, "pubkey string should be 66 or 130 digits long, got: {}", got),
         }