Paperweight

The inscription in the middle reads "Heraeus Edelmetalle GmbH Hanau".  Hanau is a town about 25km east of Frankfurt am Main, it's best known as the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm. 

It's also home to one of the largest and, to me at any rate, least well known companies in Germany - Heraeus.  Over 12,000 employees and I've never seen an office or building with their name on it. 

Edelmetalle translates as "noble or precious metal" and Heraeus makes about 12 billion a year trading in precious metals.

GmbH stands for "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung" or a company with limited liability.

And what you're looking at is a kilo of silver.  It's been poured ("gegossen") and not minted ("geprägt") and so it doesn't look like one of those super shiny bars that I always associate with banks.

It's not mine - I am not the sort of chap who has bars of silver lying around the place - but I find it a fascinating thing.  It belonged to G's father and he used it as a paperweight, hence the title. And it is pleasingly heavy for its size (11cm by 5cm by 2cm). 

And if you were wondering, it's worth about 480 Euros - depending on what the market price is today.