diff --git a/electrum b/electrum
index 7095d8e0b..63b7c559e 100755
--- a/electrum
+++ b/electrum
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ import electrum
 from optparse import OptionParser
 from decimal import Decimal
 
-from electrum import Wallet, SecretToASecret, WalletSynchronizer, format_satoshis
+from electrum import Wallet, WalletSynchronizer, format_satoshis
 
 known_commands = ['help', 'validateaddress', 'balance', 'contacts', 'create', 'restore', 'payto', 'sendtx', 'password', 'addresses', 'history', 'label', 'mktx','seed','import','signmessage','verifymessage','eval','deseed','reseed']
 offline_commands = ['password', 'mktx', 'label', 'contacts', 'help', 'validateaddress', 'signmessage', 'verifymessage', 'eval', 'create', 'addresses', 'import', 'seed','deseed','reseed']
@@ -361,8 +361,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
                     b = "%d %d %s"%(no, ni, str(Decimal(wallet.get_addr_balance(addr)[0])/100000000))
                 else: b=''
                 if options.show_keys:
-                    pk = wallet.get_private_key(addr, password)
-                    addr = addr + ':' + SecretToASecret(pk)
+                    addr += ':' + str(wallet.get_private_key_base58(addr, password))
                 print addr, b, _type, label
 
     if cmd == 'history':
diff --git a/lib/__init__.py b/lib/__init__.py
index 1f76a2e1b..df10c3b77 100644
--- a/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-from wallet import Wallet, SecretToASecret, format_satoshis
+from wallet import Wallet, format_satoshis
 from interface import WalletSynchronizer
 from interface import TcpStratumInterface
diff --git a/lib/wallet.py b/lib/wallet.py
index da9ae15dc..73250f62d 100644
--- a/lib/wallet.py
+++ b/lib/wallet.py
@@ -371,6 +371,11 @@ class Wallet:
     def get_sequence(self,n,for_change):
         return string_to_number( Hash( "%d:%d:"%(n,for_change) + self.master_public_key ) )
 
+    def get_private_key_base58(self, address, password):
+        pk = self.get_private_key(address, password)
+        if pk is None: return None
+        return SecretToASecret( pk )
+
     def get_private_key(self, address, password):
         """  Privatekey(type,n) = Master_private_key + H(n|S|type)  """
         order = generator_secp256k1.order()
@@ -388,6 +393,7 @@ class Wallet:
                 for_change = True
             else:
                 raise BaseException("unknown address")
+            if not self.seed: return None
             try:
                 seed = self.pw_decode( self.seed, password)
             except: