WordPress.com Stats Smiley Remover plugin by christopherross quickly removes the smiley face that WordPress.com Stats (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/) places in the footer of your web pages.
The #9786; character is created by WordPress.com Stats when activated. The WordPress.com Stats Smiley Remover uses W3C compliant CSS code to remove the character from users screens.
Download and info: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpresscom-stats-smiley-remover/