diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 9fdcf6c..4757012 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -3,12 +3,6 @@
 https://github.com/josdejong/jsoneditor
 
 
-## not yet published, version 7.0.5
-
-- Fix #794: fix discrepancy between valid JSON numbers and valid JavaScript
-  numbers (i.e. `+2` is a valid in JavaScript but not in JSON).
-
-
 ## 2019-09-11, version 7.0.4
 
 - Fixed #723: schema error popup and color picker not always fully visible.
diff --git a/src/js/util.js b/src/js/util.js
index 79eb3bb..2ae529a 100644
--- a/src/js/util.js
+++ b/src/js/util.js
@@ -1345,14 +1345,10 @@ export function parseString (str) {
     return false
   }
 
-  try {
-    // will nicely fail for strings like '123ab', '  ', and '+1'
-    const num = JSON.parse(str)
-    if (typeof num === 'number' && !isNaN(num)) {
-      return num
-    }
-  } catch (err) {
-    // no need to handle this error, it was just to try parsing into a number
+  const num = Number(str) // will nicely fail with '123ab'
+  const numFloat = parseFloat(str) // will nicely fail with '  '
+  if (!isNaN(num) && !isNaN(numFloat)) {
+    return num
   }
 
   return str
diff --git a/test/util.test.js b/test/util.test.js
index 8f967d9..76accec 100644
--- a/test/util.test.js
+++ b/test/util.test.js
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ describe('util', () => {
     assert.strictEqual(parseString('null'), null)
     assert.strictEqual(parseString('true'), true)
     assert.strictEqual(parseString('false'), false)
-    assert.strictEqual(parseString('+1'), '+1')
+    assert.strictEqual(parseString('+1'), 1)
     assert.strictEqual(parseString(' '), ' ')
     assert.strictEqual(parseString(''), '')
     assert.strictEqual(parseString('"foo"'), '"foo"')