I did a 1730 basement yesterday that the guy says he found a 1650? or so french Louis xiv on the floor when he was 10. That must have been the only coin. Only found a piece of copper pipe and nails. Didn't find much outside either.
My neighbor's house had a dirt floor and was built in the 1880's. They dug out the basement a little to level it and put in a concrete floor. Outside where he dumped there was a 1894 Barber dime I recovered, nothing else.
Hi there guys I definitely recommend detecting that basement if you get the chance to. I had the opportunity to detect just one house back in the 1990's with my Tesoro silver Sabre 2.
Mind you this wasn't a very old house. It was built in the 1930s. I was able to pull out a handful of Wheats. But the best find of all was a Julius Vom Hofe fishing reel from around 1890. It was buried in a dry section of the dirt floor and was fairly deep at probably 10 in from what I recall.
That reel actually wound up being in quite good condition. There was a tiny bit of surface corrosion but it was mostly very shiny. I disassembled and lubricated it and it spun amazingly well.
Unfortunately I no longer have that fancy reel. It was one of the items that I wound up losing to a divorce... But finding it was quite a thrill.
This is very very close to the item I found.
The image I attached is not my own. I borrowed it from this (lures and reels) website which has a nice page about these vintage fishing reels.