It's 440A. So it is 440, but the cheap kind. It's fairly fine grained and can be made reasonably sharp if the knife has the right geometry. Cutco knives are stamped fairly thin, and thin is good for many knife things. 440A is a "value" but not a high quality steel. Better than 420J I suppose, but not by much.
And Ice, I never said they were bad knives, just way overpriced. The OP's "Petite Chef" is a straight edged, wide, 7-5/8" chefs. It retails for right around $100 (although you can find them discounted on ebay and a few other auction sites). You can buy a pretty serious 8" knife for a hundred smackers.
What Cutco's "straight edged" (aka fine edged) knives won't do is hold an edge very well. That is they dull profoundly after very little use. For a lot of cooks that's not a big deal because they expect knives to be dull.
Cutco's "Double D" edges are a different story. Not much happier, but different. Serrated knives don't cut the same way as fine edged blades do. They're really more saws than knives, leaving a ragged kerf rather than a smooth, fine cut. The Double Ds aren't sharp in the same sense as... say... one of my knives, but they will efficiently cut. Lots (most) people like serrated knives for cutting tomatoes for precisely that reason. Like steak knives, the Cutcos don't cut well, but they cut at all. And since those people can't sharpen, can't use a knife well, and have never used a good one, that works for them.
Now, I don't know about you but cutting nickles is not a big part of my prep. Mirepoix yes. Small change, no.
I can't tell you how many houses there are where the only usable prep knife in the house is a steak knife or Cutco Double D. The homes of otherwise good cooks too. That's the backstory behind why I'm so active talking about knives in Chef Talk. You can do things with a sharp knife you can't with a dull or serrated one which make your food better. Both the BDL persona and the real me are much more about cooking better and teaching others to do the same than hardware -- granted though, you can't always tell.
BDL
PS. Just like your Ice's first car, my current ride is a Ford. Different year and model though.