As the US coin is dated later than the Spanish colonial coin, I suspect E is the younger person. The countermarks on both coins seems to have been made in the same fashion (single punch) with the same font - though the font is of a rather common, serifed type, its letter L stands out for its long serif, repeated in the E.
I can't find a use for these counterstamps. Fishing, shipbuilding, logging and shipping were important early businesses on Vinalhaven. It is hard to see their need for silver dollars or why there would be a shortage of them on the island.
Maybe they were lucky coins, found "in the attic" one or two generations later and presumed to be souvenirs of the town's "founding" generation?
Wikipedia seems bent on playing down the role of the Vinal family. Maybe the Vinal family considered them proof that their ancestors had been on the island for generations? Whatever the case, these are not tokens but privately counterstamped coins.
Peter
