diff --git a/api/krusty/numericcommonlabels_test.go b/api/krusty/numericcommonlabels_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42b5971f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/krusty/numericcommonlabels_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// Copyright 2020 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package krusty_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	kusttest_test "sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/testutils/kusttest"
+)
+
+// This test shows numeric-looking strings correctly handled as strings
+func TestNumericCommonLabels(t *testing.T) {
+	th := kusttest_test.MakeHarness(t)
+
+	// A basic deployment just used to put labels into
+	th.WriteF("/app/default/deployment.yaml", `
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  name: the-deployment
+`)
+
+	// Combine these custom transformers in one kustomization file.
+	// This kustomization file has a string-valued commonLabel that
+	// should always be quoted to remain a string
+	th.WriteK("/app/default", `
+commonLabels:
+  version: "1"
+resources:
+- deployment.yaml
+`)
+
+	m := th.Run("/app/default", th.MakeDefaultOptions())
+	th.AssertActualEqualsExpected(m, `
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: Deployment
+metadata:
+  labels:
+    version: "1"
+  name: the-deployment
+spec:
+  selector:
+    matchLabels:
+      version: "1"
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      labels:
+        version: "1"
+`)
+}