diff --git a/Source/NSTabView.m b/Source/NSTabView.m
index d380e7fac..6f0c57e28 100644
--- a/Source/NSTabView.m
+++ b/Source/NSTabView.m
@@ -558,6 +558,8 @@
 {
   self = [super initWithCoder: aDecoder];
 
+  _selected_item = NSNotFound;
+
   if ([aDecoder allowsKeyedCoding])
     {
       if ([aDecoder containsValueForKey: @"NSAllowTruncatedLabels"])