diff --git a/numpy/polynomial/_polybase.py b/numpy/polynomial/_polybase.py
index 9674dee0b3f2..3bea91dd239c 100644
--- a/numpy/polynomial/_polybase.py
+++ b/numpy/polynomial/_polybase.py
@@ -499,7 +499,7 @@ def __getstate__(self):
         ret['coef'] = self.coef.copy()
         ret['domain'] = self.domain.copy()
         ret['window'] = self.window.copy()
-        ret['symbol'] = self.symbol.copy()
+        ret['symbol'] = self.symbol
         return ret
 
     def __setstate__(self, dict):
diff --git a/numpy/polynomial/tests/test_polynomial.py b/numpy/polynomial/tests/test_polynomial.py
index a0a09fcf4a93..6b3ef2388f63 100644
--- a/numpy/polynomial/tests/test_polynomial.py
+++ b/numpy/polynomial/tests/test_polynomial.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import numpy.polynomial.polynomial as poly
+import pickle
+from copy import deepcopy
 from numpy.testing import (
     assert_almost_equal, assert_raises, assert_equal, assert_,
     assert_warns, assert_array_equal, assert_raises_regex)
@@ -41,6 +43,15 @@ def test_polyone(self):
     def test_polyx(self):
         assert_equal(poly.polyx, [0, 1])
 
+    def test_copy(self):
+        x = poly.Polynomial([1, 2, 3])
+        y = deepcopy(x)
+        assert_equal(x, y)
+
+    def test_pickle(self):
+        x = poly.Polynomial([1, 2, 3])
+        y = pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(x))
+        assert_equal(x, y)
 
 class TestArithmetic: