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As far as the general advisability of an invasive test on the edge, I confess to having done it on occasion. It's unobtrusive and has saved me the hundreds of dollars that it would have cost me to conduct an SEM/X-ray analysis. It has revealed very clever counterfeits and also unsuspected compositions. It should be done under magnification and involve the removal of as little metal as possible. On reeded coins I use a scalpel to shave one side of a reed under a microscope. No grader would ever pick it up.
And that is precisely why I think an amateur should never attempt that. You know exactly how to do it in the least intrusive and damaging way possible but Joe Schmoe probably won't have as deft of a touch. I am very adept at using a scalpel and microscope(micro dissection of mouse brains

) and I personally would not feel comfortable doing it. However, I would feel more comfortable with someone of your caliber doing it to a coin of mine vs me. Then again, I have never owned something that I thought would require an XRF analysis.