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From 25 august there is another second Lithuanian government period till the third Polish occupation by troops of the Lithuanian-White-Russian front.
The Polish leader, Josef Pilsudski, had send the army to Lithuania. He regarded Vilnius as a part of the old -and now rised again- Poland, but it was also his native region. At 9 oktober 1920 general Lucjan Zeligowski occupied the south-east of Lithuania -aboud one-third of the country -with the capital Vilnius (for Poland: Wilna).
Poland couldn't ap[prove official this occupation, but by way of a "coup d'état'' Zeligowski founded a new state. Officially Zeligowski was a 'rebel' for the Poles, but later he became even Minister of defence of Poland. This new state get the name Srodkowa Litwa (Central Lithuania) and has gone issue stamp itself.
When the Lithuanian period finished, the Lithuanians had no opportunity to take with them the supply of stamps. The Poles used this stamps for overprints, and even they were sold on the counter before the appearance of the first regular stamps of Central Lithuania. In the catalog of Pachonski from 1930 the overprints are numbered as 1-10 (Michel 4-13).
In the short time that this state existed, are stamp printed to the value of about 2 milliard Mark. So the most stamps were for sale to collectors for to fill up the treasury of Central Lithuania. Really by mail are not used so much stamps.
At 20 oktober the postnet has been established, with post offices and the first stamps.
This was something for form's sake: Polish stamps were tolerated. Also Polish postal stationaries remained in use: the printed value indication was counted for franking, in conformity with a post-treaty with Warsaw.
In general these stamps are not really expensive, with the exception of the before mentioned overprints of Lithuanian stamps (Mi.4-13). The 10 Mk on 3 Auks had aprinting of 283, and the 10 Mk 0n 5 Auks a printing of 360. These overprintings were thus worth the trouble to forge them.
By the war-circumstances it was indeed hard to get paper and ink and alsothe printing-facilities were not optimal. This led to a lot of varieties in paper and colors.
As so many issues of Central Lithuania, the first stamps are been issued toothed and non-toothed. These stamps show the arms of the new state with the Polish eagle and the Lithuanian rider:

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Often topics of the stamps have relations with great past of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire, and also General Zeligowski is to find on a stamp:

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Part of a letter with stamps of Central Lithuania, postmark WILNO.

After the elections of 8 January 1922 the new parliament decide 20 February 1922 on joining Poland. At 16 April 1922 the whole area becomes Polish.
Of course Lithuania did not recognize the annexation of the Vilnius-area. On Mi. 324-325 we see marked the Vilnius-area:

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In the Lithuanian constitution remains: "art.5 The capital of Lithuania is vilnius. By law she can removed provisional elsewhere". Also there was no postal traffic between Vilnius and Lithuania and regularly in the course of years there were skirmishes by the border.
Only after a Polish ultimatum (17 Mrch 1938) and the threat of a great concentration of Polish troops near the border, the diplomatic representations in Kainas and Warsaw were opened. Also the railway-, post- and telegraph-communications were restored.


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Letter with Polish stamps and postmark WILNA to New York (1922)
This period in Poland the inflation begins really to rise. This letter is franked with 50 Mark. Letters up to 20 gramm to a foreign country had to be franked from 15 September 1921 with 25 Mark. From 1 May 1922 already 50 Mark was needed, 15 September 1922: 100 Mark, 15 December 1922: 200 Mark, 20 February 1923: 500 Mark, and finally 16 februari 1924 550.000 Mark. After the money-reform, 1 Mei 1924, the postal rate becomes 0,30 zl. (=30 groszy), registering 0,30 zl. and express 0,60 zl.




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Polish postcard from Vilnius -with a something unclear cancellation- to Dresden. The little round stamp is from the censorship in Warschau.

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The Polish period endures to 19-22 september 1939, when Vilnius became occupied by Sowjet-troops.

Periodicals:
BLPSNY = Bulletin of the Philatelic Society of New York [in English] HBG = Het Baltische Gebied[in Dutch]
Lituania [in German]

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Fälschungen und Echtheitskriterien : 5. Fortsetzung / Udo Klein In: Lituania 1998 ; nr. 9. - p. 570-578 [p.572-575: B. Mittellitauen]	[About: stamps of Central Lithuania ]
Die Inflation der Markwährungen und das postalische Geschehen im litauisch-polnischen Raum / Gerhard Hahne Wuppertal : Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Polen e. V. im BdPh e. V., 1996. - 306 p.	[About: Vilnius-area after World War I and under Polish administration]
De postzegels van Midden-Litouwen (Litwa Srodkowa) / A Laszkiewics, samenst. In: HBG 1991 ; 19. - p. 54-75	[About: overview of the stamps of Central Lithuania]
Tien jaar Vilnius-kwestie 1920 - 9 october - 1930 / door J.H. van Peursem 's-Gravenhage : De Haagsche Postzegelhandel, 1930. - 31 p	[About: conflict between Poland and Lithuania about the Vilnius-area]
Das vergessene Datum - der 10 Mai 1938 (aus der Geschichte der polnisch-litauischen Beziehungen in der Zwischenkriegszeit) / Andrzej Wydra In: Lituania 2000 ; nr. 13. - p. 836-846	[About: re-establishment of Polish-Lithuanian relations in 1938]
Wilna-Zeittafel In: Lituania 1996 ; nr. 5. - p. 235	[About: Vilnius chronological table]
Wilnas Post 1918-1922 / Gerhard Hahne In: Lituania 1996 ; nr. 5. - p. 289-294	[About: postal history of Vilnius 1918-1922]

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Tsaristic period

1914-1918 World War I

1918-1920 Independence

1939-1945 Sovjet - Lithuanian - German

1944-1990 Sovjet period

1990- Independence