diff --git a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
index 2bb65e06daf..acf4cdd7754 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ def xml_to_string(elem):
     return text
 
 # characters that are valid
-valid_chars  = set(string.letters + string.digits + " -=_.()/+*^,:?!;|")
+valid_chars  = set(string.letters + string.digits + " -=_.()/+*^,:?!")
 
 # characters that are allowed but need to be escaped
 mapped_chars = { '>' :'__gt__',