Alan DuBoff
>Looks ok, nothing to write home about, and actually if you look at the edges that are used most, they are not sharp/clean.

This second pic is pictured the wrong way for a right handed smith, who will typically forge with the horn on the left side. It is the far side of the top edge that you use most often, and the front edge as well, but those edges are important for a good anvil, IMO.

As noted by Todd, the resale on Trenton anvils is not as good as others, although they are not bad anvils, IMO, and are made from wrought with tool steel plate on top, similar to Peter Wrights, as I recall. I am more familiar with Peter Wrights and Hay Buddens. Peter Wrights have more problems with sway than others, but in pure numbers there are probably more PW anvils than any others.

You paid top $$$ for that anvil, but you can use it and be happy with it, and produce some excellent work with it. I'm confused by the horn, the shape of the anvil looks like a London Pattern, but that fubar section on the horn for shoeing, I'm not sure if that was added or what. Could be useful for upsetting, but I prefer to use the side of the anvil for that myself, sometimes the top. Better pics of the horn would help determine if it is a shoein' anvil or not, not that it matters, that anvil can serve you fine.

Either way, you spent $400, use it and be happy. Clean it up, mineral spirits and a scotch pad would work well, along with some elbow grease. If you put the scotch pad on a hand held ROS you will find that it will clean the steel up nicely. You are mainly concerned with the edges around the top plate, and the top itself.

If you really wanted to, you could weld some proper welding rod and clean the edges up around the top section, it all depends on how much time you want to invest in cleaning it up, or if you want to do actual forging quicker or not. I would use it first, fix it later, if it was me. I would focus on getting a forge setup if you don't have one, so you can use it. You'll need to have a stump/stand to put it on. You want the height to be so you can stand beside it with your hammer in your hand and the face of the hammer will be flat on the anvil, a good test is to measure your closed fist while standing next to the anvil, the knuckles should rest on the top of the anvil. That is the ideal height.