diff --git a/src/rpc/mining.cpp b/src/rpc/mining.cpp
--- a/src/rpc/mining.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/mining.cpp
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@
     int nGenerate = request.params[0].get_int();
     uint64_t nMaxTries = 1000000;
     if (!request.params[2].isNull()) {
-        nMaxTries = request.params[2].get_int();
+        nMaxTries = request.params[2].get_int64();
     }
 
     CTxDestination destination =
diff --git a/test/functional/mining_basic.py b/test/functional/mining_basic.py
--- a/test/functional/mining_basic.py
+++ b/test/functional/mining_basic.py
@@ -290,6 +290,11 @@
         assert_equal(node.submitblock(
             hexdata=block.serialize().hex()), 'duplicate')
 
+        # Sanity check that maxtries supports large integers
+        node.generatetoaddress(
+            1, node.get_deterministic_priv_key().address, pow(
+                2, 32))
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     MiningTest().main()