##
perl -i.bak -pe '\
binmode STDIN,":utf8"; \
binmode STDOUT,":utf8"; \
if (/^([^[:ascii:]])/) { \
$_= sprintf("%04x",ord $1).$_ \
}' pml.txt
####
00c2¡ ¡ ¡ \a161 Inverted exclamation
00c2¢ ¢ ¢ \a162 Cent sign
00c2£ £ £ \a163 Pound sign
####
perl -i.bar -CDS -pe ' \
if (/^([^[:ascii:]])/) { \
$_= sprintf("%04x",ord $1).$_ \
}' pml.txt