Remembering the weekly ritual of checking the premium bonds on ‘Ernie’

Premium Bonds were not the first example of institutionalised gambling in Britain – the football pools had been around for more than 30 years when on November 1, 1956 the first bonds went on sale. Harold Macmillan, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, launched them with due pomp in Trafalgar Square, as a way to control inflation and encourage saving in the post-war world.

On the first day alone, £5m of bonds were sold, and these pictures from the archive recall the near hysteria induced when the early numbers were drawn.

The Post Office created what it called its Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment – Ernie for short – for the purpose, at the Premium Savings Bonds office in Lytham St Annes, near Blackpool.

The top prize in 1956 was £1,000 – about £25,000 in today’s money – and the maximum permitted investment was £500. But unlike most savings schemes, the bonds accrued no interest – you either won or you didn’t.

Perhaps for that reason, they were not universally popular. The shadow Chancellor, Harold Wilson, called them “a squalid raffle” and a “national demoralisation”, and some church leaders warned their flocks not to take part, fearing that Britain would become a nation of gamblers. However, the legalisation of betting shops, four-and-a-half years later, made premium bonds seem like money in the bank.

Despite the competition from both banks and the lottery, and their somewhat lower profile, premium bonds continue to be popular, with some 23m small investors hoping for a shot at the £1m top prize. But most payouts are of a more modest £25. The chance of winning is said to be 36,000 to one.

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