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My local scrapyard is a National outfit, not the largest, but one which the local smaller yards sell to.
On occasion I have asked them to identify some unknown alloy such as Inconel or Monel metal, which can be passed in the Stainless Steel category if unchecked, or on occasion, having larger quantities of Stainless, had them check it for alloy type, . The gun distinguishes between SS304, 318, etc with no problem. I also had an unmarked gold watch found in scrap, which they shot and although the guy operating the gun///not the usual operator, showed me the results as he did not know how to read it, and I identified the percentages of Au, Ag, Zn, Cu and identified it as 14 kt gold, which is what the gold buyer paid me for at the local gold buyers shop. I also had another set of finger contacts identified as having 31 percent gold in the tiny dot of the contact.
Last week I took in a card slot socket with plated wirewrapped pins which I suspected to be palladium and asked the reading. Must have gotten the inexperienced guy, who said it looked like a nickel chrome blahblahblah with no mention of Pd. I think he was trying to figure out the composition of the pin itself, and I neglected to make clear that I only was interested in the plating. Thats what happens when the request goes thru a couple people rather than the guy with the gun. So, I don't know if the XFR showed any amount of Pd at all, or if he didn't have enough surface area to get a good reading, or if he ignored the tiny fractional percentage of Pd, or if the gun even reads Pd at its current setting.

Very interesting! I wish there was a yard near me with an XRF gun.

The problem with generically xrf scanning is it’s not a generic task. And doesn’t take generic skills.

Anyone can take an xrf gun and scan a plate of copper and read the results.
But… here’s the catch. Over 90% of what is considered bare bright clean copper is less than 100% pure.
A hand held gun will often show you 99% or 100%.
A dual head wand will show a more accurate mid-90s score.

Now bring that down to the scale of say, a pin.
You need the skill to change the setting to something that small. Assuming it has a setting.
The skill to scan the pin and not the surroundings.
Line it up. Read the results, understand variance.

Unfortunately you often find the person holding the tool has non of those qualifications.
Xrf scanning is precision work. Not diy at the counter or scale.

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42 6F 61 72 64 73 6F 72 74 2E 63 6F 6D

Right. I think only one person on the lot is capable of resetting the gun for small sized...most of the employees who attempt say they can't get enough surface for a good reading on anything smaller than a couple inches surface. However, I found that a streak test on the touchstone and using 22k gold testing solution will turn certain color to indicate Pd.