@rzage There are several types. In the vintage days the finger had a curved fork end as the modern one shown but it also had a coin sized hole in the shank. A planchet dropped into that hole as the fork pushed the struck coin off the press bed. As soon as the shank hole w/planchet moved over the collar area the planchet dropped into the coining chamber and the finger retracted so another planchet could drop into the hole while the dies struck the coin. Hope that makes some sense.
It sounds like this would be a feed finger for a horizontal coin press. Today's presses use a vertical feed system, I believe. Thus the feed fingers push the planchet to the striking area?