diff --git a/src/plots/cartesian/axes.js b/src/plots/cartesian/axes.js
index 27359e06df9..bd86bb76b06 100644
--- a/src/plots/cartesian/axes.js
+++ b/src/plots/cartesian/axes.js
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ axes.coercePosition = function(containerOut, gd, coerce, axRef, attr, dflt) {
             // if position is given as a category name, convert it to a number
             if(typeof pos === 'string' && (ax._categories || []).length) {
                 newPos = ax._categories.indexOf(pos);
-                containerOut[attr] = (newPos !== -1) ? dflt : newPos;
+                containerOut[attr] = (newPos === -1) ? dflt : newPos;
                 return;
             }
         }
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/16.png b/test/image/baselines/16.png
index 446891b07b4..edce238d560 100644
Binary files a/test/image/baselines/16.png and b/test/image/baselines/16.png differ
diff --git a/test/image/mocks/16.json b/test/image/mocks/16.json
index b73a41d13e2..24e9b09e702 100644
--- a/test/image/mocks/16.json
+++ b/test/image/mocks/16.json
@@ -36,10 +36,6 @@
                 "12pm",
                 "6pm"
             ],
-            "name": "trace 0",
-            "zauto": true,
-            "zmin": 0.1189977,
-            "zmax": 0.959744,
             "scl": [
                 [
                     0,
@@ -87,147 +83,33 @@
     ],
     "layout": {
         "title": "User Traffic",
-        "titlefont": {
-            "color": "",
-            "family": "",
-            "size": 0
-        },
         "font": {
-            "family": "Arial, sans-serif",
-            "size": 12,
-            "color": "#000"
+          "family": "Arial, sans-serif",
+          "size": 12,
+          "color": "#000"
         },
-        "showlegend": false,
         "autosize": false,
         "width": 600,
         "height": 350,
         "xaxis": {
-            "title": "",
-            "titlefont": {
-                "color": "",
-                "family": "",
-                "size": 16
-            },
-            "range": [
-                -0.5,
-                4.5
-            ],
-            "domain": [
-                0,
-                1
-            ],
-            "type": "category",
-            "rangemode": "normal",
-            "showgrid": true,
-            "zeroline": true,
-            "showline": true,
-            "autotick": true,
-            "nticks": 0,
-            "ticks": "",
-            "showticklabels": true,
-            "tick0": 0,
-            "dtick": 1,
-            "ticklen": 5,
-            "tickwidth": 1,
-            "tickcolor": "#000",
-            "tickangle": 0,
-            "tickfont": {
-                "size": 14,
-                "color": ""
-            },
-            "exponentformat": "e",
-            "showexponent": "all",
-            "gridcolor": "#ddd",
-            "gridwidth": 1,
-            "zerolinecolor": "#000",
-            "zerolinewidth": 1,
-            "linecolor": "rgb(255, 255, 255)",
-            "linewidth": 0.1,
-            "anchor": "y",
-            "position": 0,
-            "mirror": true,
-            "overlaying": false,
-            "autorange": true
+          "ticks": ""
         },
         "yaxis": {
-            "title": "",
-            "titlefont": {
-                "color": "",
-                "family": "",
-                "size": 16
-            },
-            "range": [
-                -0.5,
-                2.5
-            ],
-            "domain": [
-                0,
-                1
-            ],
-            "type": "category",
-            "rangemode": "normal",
-            "showgrid": true,
-            "zeroline": true,
-            "showline": true,
-            "autotick": true,
-            "nticks": 0,
-            "ticks": "",
-            "showticklabels": true,
-            "tick0": 0,
-            "dtick": 1,
-            "ticklen": 5,
-            "tickwidth": 1,
-            "tickcolor": "#000",
-            "tickangle": 0,
-            "tickfont": {
-                "family": "Arial, sans-serif", 
-                "size": 14,
-                "color": ""
-            },
-            "exponentformat": "e",
-            "showexponent": "all",
-            "gridcolor": "#ddd",
-            "gridwidth": 1,
-            "zerolinecolor": "#000",
-            "zerolinewidth": 1,
-            "linecolor": "rgb(255, 255, 255)",
-            "linewidth": 0.1,
-            "anchor": "x",
-            "position": 0,
-            "mirror": true,
-            "overlaying": false,
-            "autorange": true
-        },
-        "legend": {
-            "x": 0.98,
-            "y": 0.98,
-            "traceorder": "normal",
-            "font": {
-                "family": "",
-                "size": 0,
-                "color": ""
-            },
-            "bgcolor": "#fff",
-            "bordercolor": "#000",
-            "borderwidth": 1
-        },
-        "margin": {
-            "l": 110,
-            "r": 200,
-            "b": 80,
-            "t": 80,
-            "pad": 2,
-            "autoexpand": true
+          "ticks": ""
         },
-        "paper_bgcolor": "#fff",
-        "plot_bgcolor": "#fff",
-        "hovermode": "x",
-        "dragmode": "zoom",
-        "barmode": "stack",
-        "bargap": 0.2,
-        "bargroupgap": 0,
-        "boxmode": "overlay",
-        "separators": ".,",
-        "hidesources": false
+        "annotations": [
+          {
+            "showarrow": false,
+            "x": "Wed",
+            "y": "12pm",
+            "text": "meeting"
+          },
+          {
+            "showarrow": false,
+            "x": 0,
+            "y": 0,
+            "text": "meeting"
+          }
+        ]
     }
 }
diff --git a/test/jasmine/tests/annotations_test.js b/test/jasmine/tests/annotations_test.js
index f771fdcca6c..cf6e282f6da 100644
--- a/test/jasmine/tests/annotations_test.js
+++ b/test/jasmine/tests/annotations_test.js
@@ -87,6 +87,41 @@ describe('Test annotations', function() {
             expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].x).toEqual('2008-07-01');
             expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].ax).toEqual('2004-07-01');
         });
+
+        it('should convert ax/ay category coordinates to linear coords', function() {
+            var layoutIn = {
+                annotations: [{
+                    showarrow: true,
+                    axref: 'x',
+                    ayref: 'y',
+                    x: 'c',
+                    ax: 1,
+                    y: 'A',
+                    ay: 3
+                }]
+            };
+
+            var layoutOut = {
+                xaxis: {
+                    type: 'category',
+                    _categories: ['a', 'b', 'c'],
+                    range: [-0.5, 2.5] },
+                yaxis: {
+                    type: 'category',
+                    _categories: ['A', 'B', 'C'],
+                    range: [-0.5, 3]
+                }
+            };
+            Axes.setConvert(layoutOut.xaxis);
+            Axes.setConvert(layoutOut.yaxis);
+
+            _supply(layoutIn, layoutOut);
+
+            expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].x).toEqual(2);
+            expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].ax).toEqual(1);
+            expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].y).toEqual(0);
+            expect(layoutOut.annotations[0].ay).toEqual(3);
+        });
     });
 });