Government bonds and printing money Wikipedia: If a central bank purchases a government security, such as a bond or treasury bill, it increases the money supply, in effect creating money.

My question is: what is the difference between this (government issues bonds and the central bank buys them) and directly printing money? If any. If there is no difference, then why would a government chose one way or the other?
The difference is that in buying the bond, the central bank now owns a bond, and a fiscal deficit has not been directly monetised.

That means that:


the government will have to keep paying interest on the bond, to the central bank, and will have to redeem it if it's not a perpetual. Remember, some governments are completely distinct entities from central banks, with no guaranteed way to move money between them in a consequence-free manner: the Eurozone governments are a good example.
The central bank can sell that bond when it wants to, giving it an extra means of contracting the money supply.
Currency speculators are less likely to start circulating around the currency like vultures that have spotted dying prey.