I'm curious. You say you want

"...2 hashes that point to the same referenced hash."

Using the references approach does exactly that...both point to exact same entity so they are both just aliases for the same thing.

I think that is not exactly what you wanted, just inadvertantly maybe described it wrong? Looks like what you want are two hashes...a working hash and a default hash (my alternative words, of course, not the OP's) and that you want to ensure that if the working hash isn't proper or gets messed up, then you want to reset it (in essence) to the default, "clean" version?

Looking at the various response (and to your response to at least one of the respnoses) it seems that everyone understood what you were trying to do. I wasn't as insightful and headed off on the wrong track (my fault, not the OP's).