For every 8 tokens you have your friend has 3.

after you give half of your tokens to your friend your friend now has 18 more tokens than you.

how many tokens did you start with.

Initially I had 48 tokens initially

Given that , For every 8 tokens you have your friend has 3

Then, let us assume that, we have 8n tokens. Then our friend will have 3n tokens

After you give half of your tokens to your friend Your friend now has 18 more tokens than you.  

We have to find how many tokens did you start with

Now, after giving away half of tokens we will have 8n/2 = 4n tokens

And our friend will have 4n + 3n = 7n tokens.

And according to given information

Friends tokens – my tokens = 18 tokens

7n – 4n = 18  

3n = 18  

n = 6

Then, I will have initially 8n = 8 x 6 = 48 tokens.

Hence, I had 48 tokens initially