The term tête-bêche (French for “head-to-foot”) in philately represents a joint pair of postage stamps inverted in relation to one another caused either due printing error or intentionally.

Certain classic stamp errors in the form of tête-bêche pair rank among the most renowned philatelic items in existence. Tête-bêche errors where caused by the upside down placement of individual stamp dies or clichés during the printing plate preparation. Rareness of a particular tête-bêche error primarily depends on the number of inverted clichés relative to the total number of clichés in a plate as well as on the overall number of sheets printed.

It is believed that occurrence of tête-bêche errors emanated from the difficulty of replacement of inverted cliché once the plate has been completed.

Tête-bêche stamps can be in the form of horizontal or vertical pair and can be found as well as gutter pairs and in various strips and multiples.

Apart from the classic tête-bêche errors, majority of tête-bêche stamps originate from sheets primarily designed for and used in production of booklets. During the production, in certain instances stamps are printed in the form of inverted multiples with the intention of being cut or separated into the booklet panes in the further step of the process. If, by any reason sheet is left intact, it results in tête-bêche pairs.

It should be noted that great number of tête-bêche stamps were produced intentionally, often for collecting purposes. Unlike classic tête-bêche errors which are usually extremely rare and expensive, modern issues of tête-bêche stamps are relatively common and not of a higher value.