use Devel::Peek;

my $x = my $y = "\xC9ric";

utf8::upgrade($x);
utf8::upgrade($y); utf8::encode($y);

Dump($x);
Dump($y);

# Now $x and $y differ only in the setting of the UTF-8 flag

say substr($x, 0, 1) eq substr($y, 0, 1) ? "equal" : "different";

__END__
SV = PV(0x8cd80cc) at 0x8cea9ec
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADMY,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0x8cef6e8 "\303\211ric"\0 [UTF8 "\x{c9}ric"]
  CUR = 5
  LEN = 9
SV = PV(0x8cd803c) at 0x8ceaa28
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADMY,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x8cf38b8 "\303\211ric"\0
  CUR = 5
  LEN = 9
different