One possibility is to format the entire destination sheet as "Text".



I think this will preserve all pasted data as is.

__________________
Using O365 v2503 - Did you know you can thank someone who helped you? Click on the tiny scale in the right upper hand corner of your helper's post

That works with typing but not with pasting. You can easily try it yourself. Open a blank worksheet, format one column as General and one column as Text. Type "Feb 79" in a cell in both columns. They are displayed differently. Then type "Feb 79" somewhere else and put it on the clipboard. Paste into both columns. Both columns will show identical date data.

Any other ideas?