The first winner, a man from Cheshire, has a total of £48,350 invested in Premium Bonds and he becomes the 397^th recipient of the life-changing sum of money.

The winning bond number is 314TY075608 and gives the county its seventh win of the top prize.

Patience is a virtue as a woman from Somerset, who has held Premium Bonds since they were first introduced in 1956, has scooped the other £1m prize.

After topping up her Premium Bonds account to the maximum £50,000 limit in September, the additional funds helped her scoop the top prize after being entered in the first eligible draw.

The winning Bond number is 340NR182743 and she becomes the 398^th winner of the jackpot prize on the 62^nd anniversary of Premium Bonds.

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Premium Bonds are offered by the government-backed National Savings & Investments (NS&I) and are the UK’s most popular savings product. Each £1 bond is entered into a monthly draw, with two lucky bondholders bagging £1m each. All Premium Bonds prizes are free of income and capital gains tax.

In the November 2018 draw, a total of 3,158,261 prizes worth £90,273,600 will be paid out. Since the first draw in June 1957, winners have shared around £18.8bn in prizes.

As part of the Budget 2018 NS&I recently announced the minimum investment is to fall and adults other than parents, guardians and grandparents will be able to open accounts for children.

Unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes

There are over 1.5 million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth £60m, according to NS&I.

In Cheshire, there are over 20,000 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth nearly £761,000, with a £25 prize dating back to February 1963. The highest unclaimed prize is worth £5,000, and was won in May 2014. It belongs to a woman who currently has £4,350 invested.

In Somerset, there are over 10,000 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth over £420,000, the oldest being won in March 1971. The highest prize unclaimed is £25,000 won by a man with £305 invested.

You can check if you have an unclaimed prize waiting for you by inputting your holder’s number in the prize checker on the NS&I website. If you have lost track of your holder number, or you’re not sure whether you have any Premium Bonds, you can use the NS&I tracing service.

Related: See YourMoney.com’s Do your Premium Bonds die with you? for more information.