Old Anvil Found in Barn

[SirGunn]

A few pics of an anvil that was found on the old family farm. I have no idea what sort of anvil it is. It's about 70 lbs, solid steel judging by the way she sings. Pic info below, hope it isn't too confusing.

All of the pics of the side are of the SAME SIDE; the only side with any discernible markings.
First pic shows the 0 and the stars which I take close ups of in pics 2 and 3.
In pic 2 the numbers "1 2" are shown clearly. Date of manufacture perhaps?
Other pics show hardie holes and overall shape of the anvil. There is another square hole on the bottom, maybe for mounting.

Hope you guys can figure this out, as this is my first ever anvil and I would love to know more about it

PICS ARE HUGE - you are warned... Might be easier to view as thumbnails.

[zampilot]

Those square holes (handling holes for rods durning mfr) at the waist would suggest a wrought iron-steel faced anvil. Take a wire brush to it an see what shows up!

[Thomas Dean]

You're right, the pictures are huge! rediculously huge. (not your fault, it's the upgrade) Anyway, I think this to be a MouseHole anvil from looking at the 4th pic. Wire brush to clean and put it to work! Would make a great travel anvil for demos.

[ThomasPowers]

This is definitely an old english anvil and so very little of it is steel; all but the face is real wrought iron!

The asterisks separate the weight numbers not a date.

The 12 is not a manufactured date but part of the old CWT marking system seen on old english anvils: it has 3 sets of numbers X Y Z: the first (from the left and may be left off if it's a 0) represents hundredweights---112 pounds so (X x 112), the second is quarter hundred weights---28 pounds so (Y x 28) and can only be 0-3 and the last is residual pounds and so (Z x 1) and can only be 0-27.

(X x 112) + (Y x 28) + (Z x 1) would be the weight in CWT system.


Note that american made anvils are usually marked in pounds and more recent anvils imported to the USA are often marked in Kg. Being able to figure out how an anvil is marked is important in buying it if the price is based on "per pound" basis. I've gotten good deals and avoided bad ones where the person selling hadn't a clue to the weight system used!