What is the value of an 1861 Confederate penny?

Answer 1

If it were one of the 12 originals, it would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. But more likely it's either a restrike or a copy.

Many restrikes were made later from the original dies. The most famous are the so-called Bashlow coins made in 1961 as part of the Civil War Centennial. Bashlow restrikes can sell for as much as $50 in bronze.

Other "Confederate cents" are copies of originals or even copies of the restrikes made from new dies, but have very little value.

So many different varieties exist that it's not possible to identify one without a very clear picture or in-person inspection, so I'd recommend taking it to a dealer who works with Confederate money. In all honesty though, be prepared to find out that you have a replica.
There are multiple varieties of this coin.

The most common ones are simply copies. These have no value over their metal content and are worth a cent or so if struck in copper. Some of these coins are stamped "COPY" while others are not.

There were 12 coins struck in copper-nickel by the CSA in 1861, these are quite valuable worth tens of thousands of dollars.

In 1874, a man purchased the original dies for the CSA cent and struck a handful of coins on his own. None of these were struck in copper-nickel but 55 were struck in copper, 7 in gold and 12 in silver. These coins are also quite valuable. After these coins were struck, the dies broke and he defaced them.

The dies were believed destroyed but a coin collector found them and made a copy of the damaged die and struck quite a few coins from the copy of the die. 20,000 were struck in bronze and thousands in silver and brass, along with a handful of coins in zinc, gold and lead. These coins are easily identifiable because they have raised bumps and cracks because they were struck from damaged dies. The bronzes ones are fairly valuable worth $50 or more and the other metals are worth even more. After these coins were struck the dies were donated to the Smithsonian.

Now, without seeing your coin in hand its impossible to tell if you've got a restrike or merely a copy, but if you take it to a reputable coin dealer he should be able to easily tell you what you have. Its most likely just a worthless copy, but its possible you might have one of the 1961 restrikes if your coin has cracks in it.