diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index df64af3b3a6dce94516fc1e5e13e3f82eb8a260b_c2V0dXAucHk=..af0d0c552e7206dca609c4d3cd25ef63a187f28f_c2V0dXAucHk= 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 from distutils.errors import CCompilerError, DistutilsExecError, \
     DistutilsPlatformError
 
-VERSION = '2.1.0'
+VERSION = '2.1.0rc1'
 DESCRIPTION = "Simple, fast, extensible JSON encoder/decoder for Python"
 LONG_DESCRIPTION = """
 simplejson is a simple, fast, complete, correct and extensible
diff --git a/simplejson/__init__.py b/simplejson/__init__.py
index df64af3b3a6dce94516fc1e5e13e3f82eb8a260b_c2ltcGxlanNvbi9fX2luaXRfXy5weQ==..af0d0c552e7206dca609c4d3cd25ef63a187f28f_c2ltcGxlanNvbi9fX2luaXRfXy5weQ== 100644
--- a/simplejson/__init__.py
+++ b/simplejson/__init__.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
     $ echo '{ 1.2:3.4}' | python -m simplejson.tool
     Expecting property name: line 1 column 2 (char 2)
 """
-__version__ = '2.1.0'
+__version__ = '2.1.0rc1'
 __all__ = [
     'dump', 'dumps', 'load', 'loads',
     'JSONDecoder', 'JSONDecodeError', 'JSONEncoder',
@@ -403,4 +403,4 @@
        separators=None,
        encoding='utf-8',
        default=None,
-   )
\ No newline at end of file
+   )