"Was there ever an alternate “e” in some foundry’s Albertus?"

Maybe. You'll never know.

Alternate(s) that I know:
"J", "M", "W", "&", "2", "4","0"
Albertus Bold: "&"

But I don't know about "e" or "E"

Possibly customised, though seeing it used it'd make perfect sense to have that alternate glyph in the character set.

It's most likely a freeware or reverse-engineered copy of Albertus mimicking the font used in the 60s TV show the Prisoner. From the Prisoner FAQ:

The font used in _The Prisoner_ is a modified version of
"Albertus" (dots removed from "i" and "j", loop of "e" opened).
...

There are two freeware Albertus derivatives, both of which have
been modified Prisoner-style. One is by Glenn Fleishman and is
called "Furioso"; the other is by Mark Heiman and is called
"Village". Both are available via anonymous FTP from
dworkin.wustl.edu:/dist/prisoner.

Rotodesign, make sure you send this post to Norbert as he loves The Prisoner

Obviously someone at Metropolitan Mystics loves the Prisoner as well. Otherwise, why would someone even hunt down a modified Albertus.

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Yes, I'm old, but I'm back in style!

See here. This font, Village, has been around since 1997.

Who is #1?