In Emacs 24.3, typing
   C-x 8 RET bell RET
results in character #x1f541 being inserted (which on my system is
displayed as a box with text 01F 514 inside).

I would expect the command to insert character #x7 (ASCII BEL
character, C-g) instead, which is also the behaviour that I get in
Emacs 23.4.