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interests and personality

About me:  ERNIE stands for Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment. I’m the one that generates the winning Premium Bond numbers each month and I love my job!

Each month I get to choose over one million winners for prizes that range from £50 up to two £1million prizes.  Since 1957 I have chosen approximately 155 million winners including almost 190 millionaires, and paid out almost £10 billion in prizes.

Some people don’t think I exist and that the winning numbers are chosen by picking numbers out of a tombola or by throwing darts at a dart board, so I thought I’d create this page to set the record straight.

Also 1 June 2007 is a big day for me: it’s my 50th birthday and I wanted to do something different to mark the occasion.

There have been four generations of ERNIE since the first draw in June 1957 and I am the slimmest and fastest machine yet – I produce 50,000 Premium Bond numbers in the time it takes to boil an egg!

I’ve won quite a few fans over the years and I regularly receive birthday, Christmas and Valentine cards, as well as poems and presents.  I’ve even received some Epsom salts, holy water and castor oil before! I have also inspired songs by Madness and Roy Wood. 

I’d like to meet:  Anyone who has won on Premium Bonds before or would like to win in the future, or any fans of Premium Bonds and ERNIE.

Interests:  Numbers, numbers, numbers – I just can’t get enough of them.  Saving. Oh, and anything random.

Music:   The ERNIE noise! Check it out on this page… I love anything by 50s icon Elvis Presley and The Magic Numbers and some of my favourite songs include Everyone’s a Winner by Hot Chocolate, ABBA’s Money Money Money and I Should be so Lucky by Kylie.

Films:  The Bridge on the River Kwai with Alec Guinness; Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire; and Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley.  They were all made in 1957 and are real classics – just like me!

Television:  I’m a big fan of Who wants to be a millionaire? The Generation Game and Countdown.

Books:  Anything by Ian Fleming or Agatha Christie. 

Heroes:  Harold Macmillan MP – he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1956 and he launched Premium Bonds, giving me my job.  Also the engineers who built my great grandfather, ERNIE 1 in 1956 – they also worked on Colossus, the WWII code-breaker. 

I’m also a big fan of the ‘Agent Millions’ – that’s the two people who visit the two £1 million prize winners each month to tell them, in person, that they have won – their job is almost as fun as mine!

Companies

Company name:  National Savings and Investments (NS&I)
City:  Blackpool office
Job title:  Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment
Division: Premium Bonds
Dates Employed:  1957 – to date

networking

Field:  Technology
Sub-field:  IT
Role:  any