UnicodeEncodeError when applying states from master but not minion

Description of Issue/Question

When running state.apply from the master, I get this:

          ID: Suran VCS_localizable_CORE_RES_1
    Function: file.replace
        Name: /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Applications/Omnis/master/Suran VCS.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings
      Result: False
     Comment: An exception occurred in this state: Traceback (most recent call last):
                File "/opt/salt/lib/python3.5/site-packages/salt/state.py", line 1913, in call
                  **cdata['kwargs'])
                File "/opt/salt/lib/python3.5/site-packages/salt/loader.py", line 1898, in wrapper
                  return f(*args, **kwargs)
                File "/opt/salt/lib/python3.5/site-packages/salt/states/file.py", line 4301, in replace
                  backslash_literal=backslash_literal)
                File "/opt/salt/lib/python3.5/site-packages/salt/modules/file.py", line 2341, in replace
                  w_file.write(salt.utils.stringutils.to_str(result))
              UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xa9' in position 14052: ordinal not in range(128)
     Started: 15:34:39.314528
    Duration: 1120.305 ms
     Changes:

But, when I run salt-call state.apply from the minion, the state applies properly:

          ID: Suran VCS_localizable_CORE_RES_1
    Function: file.replace
        Name: /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Applications/Omnis/master/Suran VCS.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings
      Result: True
     Comment: Changes were made
     Started: 15:38:21.728764
    Duration: 253.199 ms
     Changes:
              ----------
              diff:
                  ---
                  +++
                  @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
                   {
                  -"CORE_RES_1" = "Omnis Studio";
                  +"CORE_RES_1" = "Suran VCS";
                   "CORE_RES_2" = "Version 8.1.6";
                   "CORE_RES_3" = "Omnis Studio $ $";
                   "CORE_RES_4" = "";

Setup

Suran VCS_localizable_CORE_RES_1:
  file.replace:
    - name: /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Applications/Omnis/master/Suran VCS.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings
    - pattern: |
        "CORE_RES_1" = ".*";
    - repl: |
        "CORE_RES_1" = "Suran VCS";
    - require:
      - file: /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Applications/Omnis/master/Suran VCS.app

Sample Localizable.string file

Versions Report

Minion:

Salt Version:
           Salt: 2018.3.3

Dependency Versions:
           cffi: 1.11.2
       cherrypy: unknown
       dateutil: 2.6.1
      docker-py: Not Installed
          gitdb: 2.0.5
      gitpython: 2.1.7
          ioflo: Not Installed
         Jinja2: 2.10
        libgit2: Not Installed
        libnacl: Not Installed
       M2Crypto: Not Installed
           Mako: 1.0.7
   msgpack-pure: Not Installed
 msgpack-python: 0.4.8
   mysql-python: Not Installed
      pycparser: 2.18
       pycrypto: 2.6.1
   pycryptodome: Not Installed
         pygit2: Not Installed
         Python: 3.5.3 (default, Nov  8 2018, 15:57:22)
   python-gnupg: 0.4.1
         PyYAML: 3.12
          PyZMQ: 17.0.0
           RAET: Not Installed
          smmap: 2.0.5
        timelib: 0.2.4
        Tornado: 4.5.2
            ZMQ: 4.1.6

System Versions:
           dist:
         locale: UTF-8
        machine: x86_64
        release: 15.6.0
         system: Darwin
        version: 10.11.6 x86_64

Master:

Salt Version:
           Salt: 2018.3.3

Dependency Versions:
           cffi: 1.5.2
       cherrypy: Not Installed
       dateutil: Not Installed
      docker-py: Not Installed
          gitdb: 0.6.4
      gitpython: 1.0.1
          ioflo: Not Installed
         Jinja2: 2.8
        libgit2: 0.24.0
        libnacl: Not Installed
       M2Crypto: Not Installed
           Mako: Not Installed
   msgpack-pure: Not Installed
 msgpack-python: 0.4.6
   mysql-python: Not Installed
      pycparser: 2.14
       pycrypto: 2.6.1
   pycryptodome: Not Installed
         pygit2: 0.24.0
         Python: 3.5.2 (default, Nov 12 2018, 13:43:14)
   python-gnupg: Not Installed
         PyYAML: 3.11
          PyZMQ: 15.2.0
           RAET: Not Installed
          smmap: 0.9.0
        timelib: Not Installed
        Tornado: 4.2.1
            ZMQ: 4.1.4

System Versions:
           dist: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
         locale: UTF-8
        machine: x86_64
        release: 3.13.0-57-generic
         system: Linux
        version: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial

I'm at a loss to explain why salt behaves differently based on who initiates the state apply.

Start with salt/modules/file.py around the replace implementation and salt/states/file.py around the reported call, then inspect salt.utils.stringutils.to_str. Compare the master-initiated and minion-local execution paths using the provided state and Unicode-containing Localizable.strings file. Done means the same state applies successfully from both paths without the UnicodeEncodeError, with regression coverage for the differing environments.