Hi Marcin,
Courier Sans has been made like that. It’s up to you if you wanna refer to Courier as a classic serif typeface.
F

The word "classic" is arguable, but Rotis would fit.

Rotis – its serifs were cut off? I’d thought they were tacked on! ;)

Ha!

Martin Majoor describes his technique of making the sans versions of his serif faces this way. I don't think it works, since it ignores so many other aspects of balance that need consideration.

Matthew Carter, long ago, did some experiments in 'sansifying' a Renaissance Roman (no particular typeface, just letterforms), but didn't continue with it. It wasn't meant to produce direct results, and it didn't.

Then there are all the quick and dirty grunge faces from the 90s where serifs were clipped to make a "new" face. Once the clipping operation was over, they weren't "classic" anymore....

This does bring up the dilemma that we call such typefaces "sans-serif", which implies the former presence of serifs, even though it's really not true. The last 100 years is awash in this style of letterform. Shouldn't there be a different name by now? "Lineale" or "Grotesk" anyone?

In Italian it is also "bastone" ("stick/cane characters").

Thanks everyone for the comments

crossgrove: do you have any examples of the Matthew carter experiments?