Add Object To Collection (copy Not Reference)?

i have a user define object which i'm initializing with data from external datafiles.... the purpose of this object is to reduce the amount of disk/data access and processing required every time i need to add an instance of this object to a collection.so, whenever i add a copy of this object to a collection, i would simply reference the "base" object, and avoid having to process all the data and perform the conversion and so on...the issue is when i add the object

Collection.add(Base_Object, Key)

the collection ITEM is a Reference to the base object and not a copy.