Been enjoying the nice weather so I'm a little slow to respond.
A couple comments.

The fork crown was chromed.
The red primer isn't original, it is over the chrome where chrome remains.
Photos of shifter bosses are attached.

To the best of my knowledge, there is not a criminal element in Rochester that targets expensive bikes. The repaint on this bike is amateurish, but far more work( remove chrome, prime and repaint) than Rochester bike thieves go to: With them it's steal, maybe spray, then ride or sell. In our shop when a person in street shoes and clothes rides in on an expensive bike with clipless pedals, we inform them that we suspect the bike was stolen at some point and will not work on it. We do not accuse the rider because they may have bought it from the thief. We tell them to check with the police to see if the owner reported the theft. Multiple jurisdictions and failure to register bikes makes reunification very unlikely even if the rider does check. I have checked a few expensive bikes that we have picked up as donations from bikes drives, colleges, etc with national registries and none have been reported stolen.

We had an instance where the rider of a mongrelized Merlin (but still with a beautiful frame) worked with us and came back several times until we located the original owner via bike shop records. She had claimed the theft on her insurance five years prior and was impressed enough with the young man's honesty to tell him to keep the bike. We had two instances of volunteers who were reunited with their hybrid bikes when the the bikes came in for repair. No problems with the riders. A gentleman returned an electric bike that was stolen from our shop too.

Was this Paramount ever stolen? I think we will never know. meanwhile the lack of a SN on the frame and swapped dropouts precludes a firm ID. The fork could have been from another bike.
Still the question: is this dented frame worth salvage and a powder coat? Sale as-is?

Regardless, it’s a fascinating Saturday morning read! So on much knowledge in this forum!

[MENTION=208629]rcommbikes[/MENTION]

That fork almost has to belong to that frame, the size is very unusual match and the crown is a match for the lugs as used on Paramounts.

The red oxide etching primer is a Schwinn hallmark, chrome underneath could be original and was just painted over at the factory well before the rattle can.

Also looks to me like there are two different coats of silver from the feathering I can see.

Is the chrome underneath polished, then scuffed, just polished.

Regardless of all this it may be too much for the co-op to do a deep dive on this. The group of buyers this would appeal to would want to do their own refinish.

It will need a good groupo on it to bring the $$$ you would need to get from the effort.

The size is a "big" unknown and may hamstring the whole thing the jump.

I hate to say it but efbaying the frame may be smart play. If I didn't already have a big silver one and 3 others I might be negotiating already.

If you wind it up and miss the mark, it will be time and $$$ squandered.

Agreed. Once I saw all that brass in the subsequent DO pics, I was sure it was a 70s Paramount. But it should have the 1010 dropouts, not 1010Bs. Upon closer inspection, I can make out what appear to be partial shorelines of the old brass that remained after removing the original dropouts. The guides on the bottom of the shell also point to frame upgrades at some point in addition to a repaint.

Since it's no longer original, I'd sell it as-is and allow someone to buy it and let the new owner take the decision to ride/restore.

DD

Thanks to [MENTION=425004]merziac[/MENTION] I am now fully up to speed on this thread. I am an owner of a '74 P15-9 Paramount that could stand to be a little taller, and have been on the lookout for one (pending a workable top tube length), particularly in P13-9 form. My '74 was purchased in rough shape, and it's been repaired and repainted--I am no stranger to a non-original Paramount as it's been a fantastic bike.
[MENTION=208629]rcommbikes[/MENTION] the 67cm is pretty sweet--my ideal size. And it definitely screams Paramount. On some of the main tubes, it may even have "REYNOLDS BUTTED" faintly stamped into them. What is the length of the top tube? That is the critical bit, and the pictures seem to say that it is quite generous (in typical Schwinn fashion).

62 cm center of head tube to center of seat tube. There is what looks like the beginning of a cut on the steerer tube. It extends 52mm around the 80mm circumference. I put 0.23 mm fishing line in the cut and it just stands a bit proud of the depth of the cut at its deepest. 0.20mm line just fits in. A crude measurement but it’s the best I can do. The bike was obviously ridden for many miles like that. If you are interested, I’ll send the frame to you for the cost of shipping for you to evaluate. You can then send whatever you think it’s worth, remembering that we are a charity. If you value it at zero that’s OK. I just don’t like to see a classic frame scrapped.

That is an extremely generous offer! Thank you! Alas, at 62cm, the top tube is considerably longer than I can deal with--by 2.0 - 2.5cm--which I had feared. After looking at many tall bikes, that longer top tube proportion gets easier to identify in real life and in photos. I believe there are people here or online that would fit a frame like that and do the necessary work to restore it and give it a good home.

Now on Rochester CL for $100/BO.....