diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/hash/conversions.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/hash/conversions.rb
index 2a34874..51eeaf9 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/hash/conversions.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/hash/conversions.rb
@@ -53,6 +53,15 @@ class Hash
       "string"       => Proc.new  { |string|  string.to_s },
       "yaml"         => Proc.new  { |yaml|    YAML::load(yaml) rescue yaml },
       "base64Binary" => Proc.new  { |bin|     ActiveSupport::Base64.decode64(bin) },
+      "binary"       => Proc.new do |bin, entity|
+        case entity['encoding']
+	  when 'base64'
+	    ActiveSupport::Base64.decode64(bin)
+	  # TODO: Add support for other encodings
+	  else
+	    bin
+	end
+      end,
       "file"         => Proc.new do |file, entity|
         f = StringIO.new(ActiveSupport::Base64.decode64(file))
         f.extend(FileLike)
diff --git a/activesupport/test/core_ext/hash_ext_test.rb b/activesupport/test/core_ext/hash_ext_test.rb
index ece5466..2edaea6 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/core_ext/hash_ext_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/core_ext/hash_ext_test.rb
@@ -745,6 +745,7 @@ class HashToXmlTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
       <expires-at type="dateTime">2007-12-25T12:34:56+0000</expires-at>
       <notes type="string"></notes>
       <illustration type="base64Binary">YmFiZS5wbmc=</illustration>
+      <caption type="binary" encoding="base64">VGhhdCdsbCBkbywgcGlnLg==</caption>
     </bacon>
     EOT
 
@@ -754,7 +755,8 @@ class HashToXmlTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
       :price => BigDecimal("12.50"),
       :expires_at => Time.utc(2007,12,25,12,34,56),
       :notes => "",
-      :illustration => "babe.png"
+      :illustration => "babe.png",
+      :caption => "That'll do, pig."
     }.stringify_keys
 
     assert_equal expected_bacon_hash, Hash.from_xml(bacon_xml)["bacon"]