ERNIE, built by the team behind the Second World War code breaker, Colossus, started the very first Premium Bonds draw on 1 June 1957, taking 30 hours to generate the winning numbers, based on the signal noise created by neon tubes.
Today, after 15 years of loyal service, ERNIE 4 has been decommissioned and replaced with the fifth incarnation, using state of the art quantum technology to generate the growing volume of numbers that have to be produced every month.
The popularity of Premium Bonds has soared so much so that over 78 billion Bonds are now eligible to win any of the three million prizes each month with the draw taking just 12 minutes.
ERNIE 4 paid out 322 million prizes over the course its career, including over 4 million prizes to Cambridgeshire since its launch in 2004, worth over £154 million. Additionally, Agent Million has personally visited Cambridgeshire 3 times since 2004 to hand deliver the £1 million jackpot prize.
However, there are over 13,000 prizes that are due to savers in Cambridgeshire that are still waiting to be claimed out of a total of £60 million in unclaimed prizes throughout the country.
Jill Waters, NS&I’s Retail Director, said: “ERNIE 4 brought prize-winning joy to Cambridgeshire, but there are still many prizes waiting to be united with their rightful owners. Prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that Bonds have been bought for them as a child, or executors are unaware the Bonds are held when someone dies.
“By opting to manage your Premium Bonds online you could reduce the risk of missing out on prizes as they can be paid directly into your bank account or they can be reinvested into your Premium Bonds account.”
The highest value unclaimed prizes in Cambridgeshire:
|
Prize Value |
Location |
Current Holding Balance |
Winning Bond Number |
Month and Year of Draw |
|
£1,000 |
Cambridgeshire |
£1 |
003AL964259 |
May 1998 |
|
£1,000 |
Cambridgeshire |
£55 |
011LL016279 |
November 1999 |
|
£1,000 |
Cambridgeshire |
£211 |
006TB679107 |
October 2007 |
|
£1,000 |
Cambridgeshire |
£200 |
035WF430536 |
February 2014 |
|
£1,000 |
Cambridgeshire |
£1,004 |
118TX181776 |
September 2014 |
The oldest unclaimed prizes in Cambridgeshire:
|
Prize Value |
Location |
Current Holding Balance |
Winning Bond Number |
Month and Year of Draw |
|
£25 |
Cambridgeshire |
£1 |
000AL894259 |
October 1966 |
|
£25 |
Cambridgeshire |
£6 |
000CP060593 |
December 1966 |
|
£100 |
Cambridgeshire |
£3 |
003AP631653 |
February 1968 |
|
£25 |
Cambridgeshire |
£2 |
000BK845406 |
March 1969 |
|
£25 |
Cambridgeshire |
£1 |
005AN691763 |
May 1969 |
There is no time limit for claiming prizes and each unclaimed prize is held until the rightful winner can be tracked down. The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to October 1966 where a Premium Bonds holder from Cambridgeshire has a prize to the sum of £25 waiting to be claimed.
NS&I is calling for Premium Bonds holders to come forward to claim their prizes, and to sign-up to have their winnings paid directly into their bank accounts, or to have prizes auto-reinvested, to reduce the chances of prizes going unclaimed in future.
Over 34,000 Premium Bonds holders in Cambridgeshire now receive their prizes directly to their bank accounts, and a further 34,000 have opted to have their prizes reinvested into their Premium Bonds account, increasing their chances of winning further prizes.
Ways to check if you have a prize owing to you:
· Online at nsandi.com
The Premium Bonds prize checker is on the home page of the NS&I website at nsandi.com – customers simply need to enter their Premium Bond holder’s number into the search facility. Premium Bonds holders can also use the prize checker app, or check their prizes using Amazon Alexa.
· In writing to NS&I
Alternatively people can write to NS&I, quoting their name and address, any former names and addresses, date of birth and, if known, their Premium Bond holder’s number.
NS&I
Glasgow
G58 1SB