A Premium Bond is a lottery bond issued by the United Kingdom government since 1956. At present it is issued by the government's National Savings and Investments agency.
An ERNIE money box
ERNIE 1 on display at the Science Museum, London, 2012
Similar prize schemes operate in other countries, for instance this Premium Prize Bond certificate from India
National Savings and Investments
National Savings and Investments (NS&I), formerly called the Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings, is a state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is both a non-ministerial government department and an executive agency of HM Treasury. The aim of NS&I has been to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purpose of funding the government's deficit. NS&I attracts savers through offering savings products with tax-free elements on some products, and a 100% guarantee from HM Treasury on all deposits. As of 2017, approximately 9% of the government's debt is met by funds raised through NS&I, around half of which is from the Premium Bond offering.
National Savings and Investments
From the 1860s onwards, customers would take their deposit book, such as this 1869 example, to a Post Office each time they made a transaction
A publicity stamp from around the end of the Second World War urging investors to buy National Savings Certificates for National Reconstruction
A National Savings Week publicity label from 1949
