How did they collect taxes in the wild west?

Well, income taxes weren't invented until the 20th century, so you wouldn't have been taxed that way.

I'm not an expert, but state and local governments would I think have relied on a form of property tax - or possibly poll taxes. The federal government would have subsisted on money from duties on exports and imports.

So the gold would have been tax free until you tried to buy a house or land with it, or tried to ship it out of the country. **