Comment 1 for bug 307879

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments here: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=388522

Also take note of Comment #1 from Andreas J. Guelzow (Gnumeric developer, points: 21)
2006-12-22 22:24 UTC

I assume you are opening two gnumeric files in different instances of gnumeric.
If you open the two files in the same instance (ie. open the second one using
the open menu item in the first gnumeric) paste special should work for you.