diff --git a/lib/rubygems/version.rb b/lib/rubygems/version.rb
index 3c7da6b..de915d0 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/version.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/version.rb
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ class Gem::Version
   include Comparable
 
   VERSION_PATTERN = '[0-9]+(?>\.[0-9a-zA-Z]+)*' # :nodoc:
-  ANCHORED_VERSION_PATTERN = /\A\s*(#{VERSION_PATTERN})*\s*\z/ # :nodoc:
+  ANCHORED_VERSION_PATTERN = /\A\s*(#{VERSION_PATTERN})?\s*\z/ # :nodoc:
 
   ##
   # A string representation of this Version.
diff --git a/test/rubygems/test_gem_version.rb b/test/rubygems/test_gem_version.rb
index 3c26cf8..5d5bf6c 100644
--- a/test/rubygems/test_gem_version.rb
+++ b/test/rubygems/test_gem_version.rb
@@ -67,12 +67,18 @@ class TestGemVersion < Gem::TestCase
   end
 
   def test_initialize_bad
-    ["junk", "1.0\n2.0"].each do |bad|
-      e = assert_raises ArgumentError do
+    %W[
+      junk
+      1.0\n2.0
+      1..2
+      1.2\ 3.4
+      1-2-3
+    ].each do |bad|
+      e = assert_raises ArgumentError, bad do
         Gem::Version.new bad
       end
 
-      assert_equal "Malformed version number string #{bad}", e.message
+      assert_equal "Malformed version number string #{bad}", e.message, bad
     end
   end