I'm a noob like you & picked up my first anvil last weekend. It was rusted pretty badly where you couldn't make out the makers name on it. But I thought overall it was in decent shape & the price seemed fair, so I brought it home. Besides, I thought it would be fun to take a wire brush to it & find out what I had. It took a couple hours, but I finally found Armitage Mouse hole & some numbers on it. I knew this anvil was old, but had no idea how old till I did the research. What a nice surprise that was & really made me glad I bought it. It definitely has that used but not abused look, especially being over 150 years old. It weighs in at 120 lbs. Not huge by any means, but a nice size none-the-less.
If I figure out how to post pics, I'll put a few up.
